Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart
by youwannabekate
Summary: Tony Stark is a jerk. Period. The rest of the team thinks of him as a necessary annoyance, but when the Arc Reactor begins to fail, and some demons from his past come back to haunt him, the Team see how much they all truly care for him. Tony!Whump and Protective!Team. Rated T for some disturbing flashbacks and Tony's filthy potty mouth. Mentions Pepperony, Thane and Clintasha. R&R!
1. Intro To Tony

**Hey guys! This is my first fanfic ever! *cheers* I really want to know how I did with this little prelude, so constructive criticism is welcomed! But please, if you are going to flame, take that mess somewhere else. I don't need that. **

**If you see any movie details, or some grammar that needs fixing, TELL ME! **

**Reviews are appreciated. **

oOo

It was a normal day in Stark Tower.

Scratch that; it was a normal day for _them _in Stark Tower. Nothing was ever really normal anymore. The current residents of the tower were as follows: a time warped Super-soldier who didn't know his way around a toaster, a world class spy who had fifteen different ways to kill you mapped out before she reached for her coffee, another world class spy who made Katniss Everdeen look like a girl scout, a brilliant scientist who happened to have a rage monster of death lurking under his skin, a Norse god with family issues, and a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist with a Glo-stick stuck to his chest. Perfect roomies.

After the incident with Loki and the near destruction of Manhattan, the rest of the Avengers had (somewhat reluctantly) moved in with Tony Stark, and with all the super-sized personalities around here, there was bound to be some tension. Most of which revolved around Tony.

Steve had long ago come to the conclusion that Tony's "super-power" wasn't the Iron Man suit, and it wasn't his complete genius. It was his inane ability to make anyone lose their minds. Nick Fury better be OK with being one teammate down next time the Avengers were called upon because Steve wasn't too sure that Tony was going to make it. Like right now.

Steve let out a long-suffering sigh, and moved from the kitchen and his newspaper, to the lavish living room, where the billionaire in question was pressed down into the carpet, arms twisted behind his back, with an irate Black Widow pinning him down, spewing curses in Russian. Clint was almost falling off the couch with laughter as his woman systematically took down the Iron Man. Between Tony's yelps of pain, Natasha's snarls, and Clint's howls of mirth, Steve felt a headache build behind his eyes. "Stop it!" he ordered shortly.

Natasha glared up at him, and slowly let go of Tony, who stood quickly rolling his shoulders. "Thanks Capsicle."

Steve shot him a look. "What is going on here?"

"I am one-hundred percent victim here, Cap! She just jumped me!"

Natasha swore again and made to dive at him, but Steve blocked her path. He looked from the furious Natasha to Clint who was wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, bow lying forgotten next to him. "Clint?" Steve asked.

"All I know is, I was working on my bow, Tony slapped Natasha's ass, and Tony was on the ground." He hooted again at the look on Tony's face.

Steve sighed. It was going to be one of those days.

oOo

**A/N: this story will have Tony's reactor fizzing out. Any ideas on how he is going to explain the Reactor to the rest of the team? In a group? Individiually? **


	2. Tea, Pain, and Conversation

**OMG I AM LIKE DYING RIGHT NOW! YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND! I HAVE **_**REVEIWS**_**! THANK YOU SO MUCH!** **So, you all thought that he should go to Bruce first. I can see it. Ok, well here comes the plot, and hopefully longer chapters!**

**Also I am going to make references to IronMan2, but I don't have access to that movie (aka not on Netflix On Demand, grr), so I am going to go by memory. IF I GET SOMETHING WRONG TELL ME!**

**I was Googleing pictures of Bruce for research and this popped up on Google. Lookit. Giggle. It's totally worth the three seconds, and it completely sums up the ScienceBros. **

** /post/spoilers-tony-stark-the-avengers-bruce-banner-just-in-case-the-avengers-spoilers/22573998143**

oOo

Tony was in his workshop/lab/place-of-creation when it happened again. A small shot of _something_ shot from his chest to the rest of his body like….well the only thing that he could compare it to was when Pepper touched the edge of the Reactor housing with the copper wire. So in short, it hurt. A lot. He tucked his chin into his chest and stared down at the steady glow of what was keeping him alive. It looked normal, but appearances can be deceiving. Hell, take Bruce Banner for example. He is the _last_ guy you would peg for having a mean green rage machine living under his skin.

He blew out a long breath when he thought of Bruce. That man was quickly becoming his best friend. Bruce could hold an intelligent conversation, Tony could bounce ideas off of him, and he never got mad (thank God) at Tony's rather biting sense of humor. Tony could _talk_ to the man. But, even after all that Bruce had done to earn Tony's trust, Bruce still knew next to nothing about the Arc Reactor. He knew it was keeping Tony alive, and that it powered the Iron Man suit, and that letting the light go out was a _very bad thing_, but other than that, nothing. Tony needed to tell the rest of the team, he knew that, but he really didn't want to. All of the other Avengers had something that made them stronger, even Bruce will admit that the Other Guy is an asset to the team, but Tony had a _friggin' pacemaker_. He couldn't face the looks of pity from them, especially Captain Underpants.

A bolt of fire ran through his chest again, stronger this time, and he gasped. _Fuck_. He could feel his heart jolt a tiny bit, and it was NOT GOOD. Now he was just angry. Couldn't the damn thing give him a break? "JARVIS, run full scan. I want heartbeat, blood pressure, the works. Also check the Reactor for deficiencies."

"Running diagnostics now, Sir."

"Thanks, JARV. Butterfingers, hand me the thingy on the- not that- the oth- dammit, that one!" The robot meekly gave him the miniscule screwdriver he asked for, and then peeked over Tony's shoulder as if to see what he was working on. Tony moved the joint of the Mark VI boot, feeling it flex smoothly, but then with a little catch near the end of the range of motion. He began to work again, with a happier heart. This was something he could tackle, touch, see the problems, and fix them. It was good that he had something that he could _fix_. JARVIS pinged on again soon after he reassembled the ankle of the suit "Sir, diagnostics are finished."

"Talk to me. What did you find?"

"The Arc Reactor is functioning normally, at 87% capacity. You have elevated heartbeat, blood pressure 86 over 53. Temperature is normal; the slight perspiration is psychological in origin."

Sigh. "Alright JARVIS. Keep track of all my vital signs for today. I want a record if it happens again. Call Bruce, see if he's busy."

"Yes, sir."

Tony started to clean the mess of red and gold armor and shiny instruments off of his desk. JARVIS spoke again, "Dr. Banner is heading to the lab now, Sir."

"Thank you JARVIS. Tell him it's no hurry." JARVIS agreed again, and pinged off. Tony went to the small kitchen he had set up in the lab, and made one cup of coffee for him, and a cup of Bruce's favorite Earl Grey tea. The doors to the lab _swooshed_ open as Bruce walked in. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes, his button down rumpled like he slept in it, and hair a bit tousled. "How can I help you Tony?" he smiled at the billionaire's back, frowned a little bit at the green Hulk mug that Tony pressed into his hand.

Tony smirked at the look on the physicist's face. "Just wanted to talk for a while. Maybe you could look at the designs for the Mark VII?" The pair of brilliant minds settled down in chairs nursing their respective mugs for a long quiet moment. Bruce set his tea down and grabbed the Mark VI's left gauntlet, flexing the joints and rotating the wrist. "I don't think that's all you wanted."

"How could you tell?"

"I'm good at reading people." they sat in easy silence for a while, waiting for Tony to speak up.

"What do you know about my Arc Reactor?"

oOo

A good hour later, Bruce sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Wow. That technology…I just can't believe you built it in a cave. How did you implant it? What kind of medical equipment did they have? Antibiotics? Anesthesia?"

Tony's face tightened at the memories that were coming back. _"Hold him down!" Saw buzzing. Men shouting in languages. Hands all over him. Then, pain. Pain. PAIN!_ _STOP PLEASE!_—He shook his head sending those memories back to the dark corner of his mind where they belonged. "They didn't have any of that, doc. They put it in when I was awake."

Bruce's eyes flashed green and he put a hand over his face as he shuddered and tried to control his anger. Tony set empty Iron Man mug down carefully, and reached toward Bruce "Hey, big guy. You OK?"

Bruce took a long breath and let it out. "I'm fine, Tony. But you aren't. I can see it now. PTSD?"

Tony hesitated, and then said, "Yeah, it was kinda rough for the first couple of months. Pepper was great. She's the only reason I was able to function. Still don't like water though."

"Water?" Bruce asked, "Why would water bother you?"

_Shit, _Tony thought, _said too much. Well, might as well bare your whole soul. Dumbass. _"Uh…yeah, see they wanted me to build them some Jericho missiles. I didn't. Cue waterboarding." Tony tried to talk calmly, with his trademark flippant tone, but the memories were coming back. _Stop- can't breath- gonna die- Help! Yinsen! Please HELP ME! STOP!_

Bruce was shuddering again. He fought back the Other Guy, who was rearing to go _destroy_ anyone who wanted to do that to his friend. After a long tense moment, he calmed and regained control of himself. Tenuous control, but control nonetheless. "I see. So why are you telling me all of this? I appreciate it, don't get me wrong. But why?"

"Well, I almost died when…Obie stole the reactor. I need someone who knows about it, and could replace it if I was, like, unconscious or something. Pepper used to help me out, but she's not going to be there on missions."

Bruce nodded. "Smart. But what if I'm…not there at the moment?"

"You mean all Hulked out?" At Bruce's look he sighed, "Good point. I'm going to talk to the rest of the team about it, I just don—_FUCK!_" Tony swore and grabbed at his chest, curling in on himself in a futile attempt to protect himself. The fire was racing again and it was worse this time. He heard Bruce rush over, shaking his shoulder, yelling "Tony? TONY? What is it?" Tony drew in a long breath as the fire abated, and gasped out "Fine- m'fine. Just- give me- second." He uncurled from the ball he was in, and gave Bruce a snarky smile. "See? Completely fine."

Bruce's eyes were frantic, "What the hell was that, Tony? Is it the reactor? Do I need to get a new one?"

"No! No, my reactor's working, but…"

Bruce crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "But what?"

"This just started happening today. This was the third time. I don't- I have no idea what's causing this thing. It just-"

Bruce cut him off before Tony could really start to ramble, which was a sure sign he was upset. "Whatever it is, we'll find it and fix it." Pictures of Tony with a car battery hooked up to his chest, Tony being tortured, Tony gasping with no reactor because Obadiah took it, Tony being poisoned by the thing keeping him alive flashed through his head, and he had to calm down again. It would do Tony no good to have the Other Guy make an appearance in his lab.

Tony gave Bruce a relieved smile, "Thanks, Bruce." Then Tony smirked "Now get out of my lab. I have things of _importance_ to get done today, thanks."

Bruce rolled his eyes. Same old Tony. Annoying-as-hell Tony. "OK, just make sure you come up for dinner tonight. Thor and Jane are coming over, so the whole team will be here." Bruce left the lab, after giving Dum-E and Butterfingers pats on their robotic arms. _I hope._

oOo

**Good? Bad? Ugly? So horrendous that you want to toss your laptop on funeral pyre and give it Last Rites? TELL ME PLEASE!**

**Also, I'm going to insert something about Tony finding the Avengers Fanfiction. I am going to feature some slashy ones, mostly to embarrass them. Suggestions wanted. Focus on non-cannon, like Stony, Stanner, IronFrost, whatever you would call Steve/Clint (Stint?) You get the picture. **

**REVIEW NOTES!**

**Cheerfully Cynical: I am so glad I could make you laugh! I love this plot too, and the big powwow is coming up, maybe not for another two chapters though.**

**Piperijanay Alexandria: Thanks! I don't think he is going to want to tell them, but he's going to be forced to and pout like a two-year-old.**

**Kittymitten: He's going to do that too. **

**A: Request granted! Lol**

**Anonymous: I concur! **

**ZeDancingHobbit: I LOVE YOU TOO SO MUCH! I love whump, it's like, my favorite. I'm a fanfiction sadist. I take the people I love and go, "How can I make them suffer today?" I'm so messed up lol**

** .Socks: Thank you! Seeing as this is my first published fic, I really was terrified that I would get reviews like "You suck. Please leave." You made my day!**

**Pegasi1: Here you go sweetie! A bit of plot motion for you!**

**You know you wanna be Kate!**


	3. Fanfiction and a Flashback

**Alrighty, guys. It's my birthday. You know what I want for my birthday? REVIEWS! And lots of 'em. Thank you for reviewing so far, shout out to SoaringWren for her beautiful PM that made me cry. Like, for real. **

**Holy Plot Twist, Batman! **_**Forty Favorites?! **_**You guys are so freakin great!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. All the credit goes to Stan Lee and Marvel. Drat. I really wanted Tony Stark. Wouldn't say no to some Steve Rogers either. Apparently I need to do this for every chapter. IDK why. I'm a broke college student. You think **_**I **_**own this universe? Lol.**

_I really need to tell them_, Tony thought, _and I'm going to, just not right now…_

The team was all in the living room of the now-dubbed Avengers Tower. Thor was on the carpet with Jane, and they were watching some sappy Lifetime movie, with Thor asking very odd questions at very inappropriate moments in his booming voice. Clint and Natasha were cuddled up in a loveseat, not paying attention to anyone else, whispering quietly to each other. Bruce was in the big recliner, reading the paper. Steve was sitting with his back to the huge windows, getting the perfect light for whatever it was that he was drawing with such single-minded concentration. Tony was monopolizing the large leather couch, StarkPad in hand, browsing the internet.

He looked at the team that he had grown so close to over the past few months. Nothing is as good for bonding like battling inter-dimensional god, and his horde of destruction, who happens to be the beloved baby brother of the God of Thunder lying on your rug. Tony felt closer to this rag-tag bunch of science projects than he did his own blood family. You would never get him to admit it out loud, but he…loved them. In a purely non-sexual, _very_ platonic, brotherly type fashion. That kind of love. Sort of.

Tony shook his head and gave up trying to make his thoughts for them make sense, and instead did his customary Google search of his name, then the words _Iron Man_, then the rest of the team. This time however, he accidentally Googled their names _together_, with interesting results. He read for a moment, and then jumped up and rushed to the lab to get a better screen.

The rest of the team jumped at his sudden flight from the living room. "What was that about?" Steve asked.

Clint detangled himself from Natasha long enough to say, "I don't know. He was just poking around on that pad of his, and he sat up looking at the thing with his eyes bugging out of his head. And then he ran for the lab."

Bruce tensed in fear. _Was—that—happening again?_ He stood up, leaving his paper abandoned, and made for the lab with quick, purposeful steps. Steve and the rest of the team looked after Bruce, and then exchanged confused looks. "What is wrong with the Man of Iron?" Thor boomed from his position on the floor.

Steve shook off these strange actions, "Bruce is probably making sure Tony doesn't kill himself down there. God knows he spends more time in that lab…" Steve went back to drawing. It was a sketch of Tony in the Iron Man suit during their last fight. The charcoal was slowly resolving itself to reveal the Iron Man, crouched on a pile of rubble hands extended, with thrusters glowing brightly to match the glow in the center of his chest.

oOo

Bruce tapped in the keypad for the lab door that obligingly opened with a _swoosh_, and he scanned the room anxiously for Tony. Fear gripped his heart as he saw Tony sitting in one of the chairs, slouched over the desk like he had passed out. Bruce quickly made his was to Tony's side, where he could see Tony's shoulder's shake, as if with huge sobs. The scientist laid a gentle hand on the inventor's shoulder, shaking it a bit. "Tony? You OK?" Tony looked up and Bruce had to roll his eyes. Tony was shaking with _laughter_, and he was laughing so hard tears were forming in his eyes. He sucked in a hard breath, and began to howl with mirth. Bruce frowned at the billionaire who was doing a lovely hyena impression. "Idiot. I thought you were dying down here."

"Sorry, doc. But this- this is- so- goddamn- _funny_!"Tony began to laugh in earnest again.

"What?" Bruce asked. "What in the name of all creation is _that_ funny?"

"It's called Fanficton, my green, emotionally repressed friend. And I'm going to introduce the team to it." Tony swept up to the living room again, leaving Bruce bewildered, blinking hard at the change of pace, and following the billionaire out of the lab.

oOo

Tony strode imperiously into the living room, "Ladies, gentlemen, gods, and variations thereupon, I have an announcement. We are officially famous."

All the eyes in the room had flicked to Tony, standing in the middle of the room with head held high and computer in hand. They all stared at him for a second, glanced at each other and then turned back to what they were doing. Tony seemed a bit miffed that his announcement had not garnered the response he was looking for. "No, guys seriously, we are official now! We have a following and everything! Look, we have _fanfiction_!"

Steve glanced around at the room, expecting to be the only one (besides Thor) confused as usual, but everyone else seemed to be just as lost as he was. "Alright. I'll bite. What is fanfiction?" he asked in a bored tone, but in truth he was genuinely curious. The things in this century—millennium—never ceased to amaze him, if it did scare him at times. JARVIS terrified him on his first visit to the Tower.

"Fanfiction, my good captain, is a piece of amateur writing that focuses on the works of a book, movie, or something like that. Apparently, we are so big that we have fanfiction too!"

Thor's forehead crinkled in confusion. "This is a Midgardian honor, is it not? Then we must CELEBRATE OUR TRIUMPH!" he boomed out in his ridiculously loud manner.

"Inside voices, thunder boy, but yeah it's pretty cool. Also…" Tony tapped on his StarkPad again, having sufficiently captured everyone's interest, "there's this genre, called slash, where you ship two characters together, (ship meaning pair for a relationship, geddit?) so the story is a _CharacterA-_slash_-CharacterB_ story, hence the name slash. Now, a bit more background, when you _ship_ two people you combine their names. Like…" Tony glanced down at the pad again, "BLACKHAWK! Guess which ones that is! Guess! BlackWidow and HawkEye! I prefer BlackEye, myself, but hey…." The couple looked at each other from the loveseat they were tangled together in like a pair of pretzels, and snorted at Tony's less-than-perfect ship name. But Tony wasn't done there!

"Ohh, here's another one, it's a Stanner!" Bruce looked up at Tony horrified as Tony continued to read, "Which is obviously a Steve and Banner cross." Bruce and Steve were both stuttering their denials of that ship, with Steve being a darker red than the paint on his Spandex. Tony kept on. "Here's the summary for this one, it's called 'A Push in the Right Direction. _Ahem_, _'Steve and Bruce were more alike than they realized…now they come to realize this…"_ Bruce buried his face in his hands as Steve blew up like a puffer fish with indignation.

"Now you just wait, they can't just wr-" Everyone else in the room thought this was hilarious, save Thor, who was THORoughly confused **(A/N hehe geddit)**.

"Friend Bruce, Friend Steve! Why did you not inform us of your companionship? 'Tis cause for celebration!"

"It's not real, Thor," Bruce replied, slightly muffled because he was still hiding his face, "It's fi-"

"And another! This is a CaptianThunder!" Tony read gleefully as Steve began to grow irate, and Thor to again look confused.

"This box is proclaiming that I have a romance with our Captain? Nay, for my heart is for the Lady Jane only!"

"This is ridiculous! I'm sure I could talk to Fury and get him to remove this…_filth._"

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Oh, Spangles, you haven't heard the worst of it yet! This one is called 'How We Do It on Asgard.' And I quote _"…Thor spoke, his face beginning to move in closer to Steve, strong arms on either side of the Captain's body…"_

"I COMMITTED NO SUCH ACTS! HOW DARE THEY MAKE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ALMIGHTY THOR?" Thor bellowed, Mjolnir suddenly in his hand.

Jane stifled her laughter at her boyfriend and began to placate him gently, "No one said you did, sweetie."

"BUT THE BOX-"

Jane placed a hand on his arm, bringing it and Mjolnir down, "It's just people writing stories, that's all. I trust you." Thor acquiesced, but still grumbled.

Tony was getting more fun out of this than he thought, "Here's another BlackHawk, Blackeye, whatever. It's called 'Free Show'." The couple looked at each other again, with a bit more trepidation.

"The summary reads as follows: 'Natasha has taken to wearing as little clothes as possible around the Avengers' mansion and everyone has noticed. Everyone that is, except for Clint'."

Natasha growled at that portrayal of her, but Tony kept on again, "Oh there's quite a bit about me too…Stony! Steve and Tony, or…_Superhusbands?_ No, I much rather prefer Stony." At the murderous glance Steve sent his way, he made a wise decision, "OK, moving on, what about…ScienceBros! Tony and Bruce, cause we're smart! Here we have IronThunder, IronFrost…_Loki?_ No way…Ohh my personal favorite, _the IronWIDOW!_" Tony leered at Natasha for a second. "Hey, wanna try that out?"

Natasha had had enough. She sprang up from the loveseat with amazing dexterity. Tony only had enough warning to toss the StarkPad to safety before the growling ex-assassin was on top of him. He fell backwards onto the soft carpet with no injury, except that all the breath in lungs left his body with a loud _Oomph!_ She pinned him, not like a few days ago, but on his back, with his arms spread out on either side of him. Her hands on his biceps, she shoved him into the ground, screaming obscenities at him in every language she knew, including Arabic. That's when it all went to shit. As her knees settled on his chest to hold him firmly in place, the now-familiar burn laced through him. That's when the shit hit the fan.

_He was no longer in his airy open living room; he was in a dank, suffocating cave in Afghanistan. He could feel the pain of the shrapnel, his arms held to the side with leather cuffs that bit into his skin. He could hear people shouting in Arabic, and the saw as it made its decent to tear open his chest._

_Pinned. They got me, how did they get me again?! No! No, I won't! Is that Natasha? What is she doing here? Tash, HELP ME! TASH, RUN! DON'T LET THEM GET YOU TASH! NO PLEASE NO MAKE IT STOP THE PAIN STOP STOP STOP I'LL BUILD IT PLEASEPLEASE OHGODSTOPITPLEASE!_

_The pain overwhelmed him and his world faded into blackness._

oOo

Bruce was not feeling very charitable toward Tony at the moment. He was standing, whole and fit, in the middle of the room, embarrassing the whole team so badly that the Other Guy would have blushed. When Natasha flew at Tony like an enraged cat, spitting and everything, Bruce was firmly on Agent Romanov's side. _Let him have his comeuppance. Scares the crap out of me, then, what's the word,_ ships_ me with Steve!_

The scientist watched saw the whole thing. Saw Tony's eyes widen as if to say _Shit I'm in for it_, then the true fear, then grimacing in real pain, all of that in a flash, just a second and the whole thing had changed. Tony had begun to writhe beneath Natasha in a way that was purely instinctual, fueled by adrenalin, and much stronger than Natasha had expected. His bucking and flailing, then screaming, had the entire team thrown for a loop.

"NO! PLEASE! NO! I'LL BUILD IT I SWEAR JUST STOP! STOP IT! _YINSEN! HELP ME! PEASE! NOOO!"_

Bruce flew to Tony's side, yelling in his I'm-about-to-Hulk-so-back-off-voice to give Tony some room, and cradled his head as Tony thrashed. His cries were becoming worse, so Bruce tried to calm him, "Shh, Tony, Tony, you're in New York, in the Tower, you're safe, shhh, Tony," he rambled on. Then Bruce's stomach dropped to the ground floor.

Through the thin material of his white wife beater, the whole team could see the glow of the Arc Reactor flicker.

Tony eventually grew still; the billionaire slumped over Bruce's lap. The room was perfectly silent. Bruce broke the silence, "JARVIS!"

"Yes Dr. Banner?"

"Run a medical scan on Tony."

"I have been following and recording Sir's vital signs all day today, per the request of Sir."

"Thank you JARVIS. Steve, help me pick him up." Steve rushed over to pick up the legs of the limp man, who looked much smaller now. The battle hardened Captain was pale. "Wha-," he cleared his throat, "What was that?" They gently placed Tony down on the couch.

Bruce pressed his fingers into Tony's wrist, marking the racing heartbeat, before answering. "I can't tell you all the information. Tony only told me the whole story yesterday, and I'm not going to repeat it without his permission. It's his story to tell. I can tell you, though, that was a mixture of a physical symptom of unknown causes that has been bothering Tony for a while, and a…PTSD induced flashback."

Steve frowned. What the hell could have given Tony PTSD? Why was Tony sick? "Is he going to be alright?"

A nod from Bruce sent relieved sighs echoing around the room, where people had been holding their breaths. "He'll be out for a while, catching up on lost sleep, and then he'll wake up, just fine."

Steve sat again and crossed his arms. "We'll wait then."

oOo

Tony felt like hell. His chest ached, and his entire body felt slightly sore. A bright light was cutting through his eyelids, forcing him awake. He dragged his eyes open and pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch. _Couch? The hell am I sitting here for?_ Then, memories of what happened raced through his mind. He shook his head to dispel the darker pictures, and looked around. His eyes met six worried, confused pairs of eyes. The eyes of his team. _Well, Shit._

oOo

**Longest chapter ever! All the Fanfictions mentioned in this chapter can be found on , just search the title. I DON'T OWN THEM! **

**REVIEW NOTES**

**Cheerfully Cynical: Thanks! I am like Fanfiction Flash! Lol, no just a long weekend and no social life. Please Don't die!**

**Sere16: Thanks sweetie! **

**Pegasi1: Thank you, I was worried about that convo. I want you to worry about Tony! That's why it's Whump!**

**Karyemina: Thanks for the follow!**

**Kittymitten: Thanks!**

**SpanaHana: I love it too! It's my favorite no matter what Fandom.**

**Guest: Thank you, my dear. I wish you had signed in so I could give you kudos for the review.**

**A: Yup, I'm back. That's what a long weekend stuck in a dorm room will do. Fanfiction Flash Here! And thanks!**

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate**


	4. Storytime, Ladies!

**Can I just take a second to appreciate how awesome you guys are? You're cooler than bowties. I don't even know how ya'll are so great! They love me! They really love me! *wipes away tears***

**No, for real, guys, I really appreciate all of you who took the time to review, follow, and fav, making this the **_**BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!**_** On an unrelated note, my sister gave me a T-Shirt that says 'Keep Calm and Don't Blink.' It's pretty awesome. You're jelly. **

**This is long. This is angsty. This ends with a funny. You have been warned. **

**Also, I figured out that FF. net is cutting off the URLs that I posted. So, I'm going to repeat it. All of the Fanfics that were referred to in the previous chapter can be found on FF .net. Just search. **

**This is a Bruce and Steve funny that I found on the interwebs. Please lookit. It's worth it. **

** rebloggy post/spoilers-tony-stark-the-avengers-bruce-banner-just-in-case-the-avengers-spoilers/22573998143**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. All the credit goes to Stan Lee and Marvel. Drat. I really wanted Tony Stark. Wouldn't say no to some Steve Rogers either. Apparently I need to do this for every chapter. IDK why. I'm a broke college student. You think **_**I **_**own this universe? Lol.**

oOo

Previously…

_Tony felt like hell. His chest ached, and his entire body felt slightly sore. A bright light was cutting through his eyelids, forcing him awake. He dragged his eyes open and pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch. _Couch? The hell am I sitting here for? _Then, memories of what happened raced through his mind. He shook his head to dispel the darker pictures, and looked around. His eyes met six worried, confused pairs of eyes. The eyes of his team. _Well, Shit.

oOo

Steve was terrified. He didn't show it, because soldiers weren't supposed to show fear, but he was scared for Tony, scared out of his mind. In Steve's head, he was the leader, so he was supposed to lay down on the wire, take the pain, make the hard decisions, and most of all _protect his team_, no matter the cost. A small rational part of him knew that there was no way he could have known, nothing he could have done, but the overwhelming majority of him was swallowed by guilt. Tony wasn't supposed to be pale and still, with remnants of pain still ghosting over his face. Tony was supposed to be loud and obnoxious. Tony was supposed to be a constant. An annoying, self-loving, idiotic, genius constant.

When Tony stirred and squeezed his eyes tight with a grimace and groan, the fear lanced up again. The whole team, already quiet, became completely silent as they waited for Tony to wake up. The genius in question struggled to his elbows and blearily looked around the room. "Well. That hasn't happened for a while."

Steve couldn't take it anymore "The hell, Tony?" he blurted, "What was that?"

"That was a flashback, Captain. That's F-L-A-"

"I know what a flashback is," Steve snapped, "What I want to know is why _you_ had one? Who is Yinsen? As your team, we kinda need to know these things."

Tony's face darkened like he was going to argue, but then he thought better of it and flopped back down onto the cushions. "You're right, Cap." Steve looked taken aback at the lack of fight from the usually contrary Tony. "I was meaning to tell you guys anyway. But stuff happened, and, yeah…so. You guys got anything pressing on your planners for a few hours because I really don't feel like repeating myself."

Jane looked around awkwardly. She felt this was a team discussion, and didn't want to intrude. "Darcy and I are going to meet up and go shopping. I better get going." She kissed Thor on the cheek, and then hesitantly turned to Tony. "You take care of yourself, OK?" She blushed as she left the room.

Tony sat up again and crossed his legs beneath him. "Gather 'round, ladies, its story time!" Everyone else rolled their eyes at Tony, but moved in closer to give him support in the manner of undivided attention. "A few years ago," Tony began, "I was a real dick."

Clint snorted. "We already knew that, Iron Ass."

Tony shot him a look. "No, I mean it. Stark Industries made weapons, and weapons only. I didn't care how they were used, as long as it was Americans doing the shooting. I went to Afghanistan to do a bit of demonstration of my new Jericho missile. It was mostly a shock-and-awe type thing, trying to scare the locals. But then it all went—wrong. I remember talking to a soldier, a kid, really, he must have been twenty, max. I took a picture with him. Then—bullets, bombs. A terrorist group called the Ten Rings got a hold of some of the smaller missiles in my arsenal and blew some up, trying to get me. Capture, I mean. Not kill. I was so stupid, I left the Humvee, and I saw one of my own bombs, _my bomb_, and it blew up in my face. I got a chest full of shrapnel, and no medical attention. Most of the team died that day. That kid? He's dead. Then it just got worse."

Bruce got up and began to pace, doing anger management exercises in his head. _It's over, no need to get angry._ Steve, Thor, and Clint looked horrified. They had no idea. Natasha knew the basics, from being undercover as his PA, but all she knew was that he was held hostage and rescued a few months later with PTSD and a fractured arm.

Tony barreled on with the story, reluctant to stop once he had started. "After that, I really don't remember too many details. I remember being carried, I remember a cave, then…just being strapped down, people yelling, a saw, and then…well you can imagine the rest. I woke up the next day with a metal hole in my chest connecting me to a car battery."

Steve felt nauseous. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "You were awake?"

"Yep," Tony said.

Thor looked murderous. "I will DESTROY those who hurt Friend Tony!"

"That's OK, thunder, I took care of it." Tony said. They sat in silence taking in that statement for a second, before Clint dragged them back to topic.

"But _why_?" Clint asked. "Why even attach you to a battery in the first place?"

"I had large pieces of metal in my chest that they couldn't reach, stuck in my veins, arteries, and lungs. It's impossible to remove them with surgery. The idea of this thing is to use an electromagnetic pulse to attract the metal _away_ from my heart, to the housing. Without it, they would have traveled to my heart and I would have been dead within twelve hours. As it was, the car battery wasn't powerful enough. The pieces were still moving, but really slowly. It wouldn't do the trick. I had a week. Yinsen called it 'the most important week of my life'."

Natasha spoke up. "You called for this –Yinsen, when you were…remembering. Who is he?"

Tony sighed, deepest grief on his face. "_Was_ he, Tash. He's dead." The rest of the team murmured their condolences, but Tony waved them off. "It's fine. I'm fine. To answer your question, Yinsen was a doctor who was in captivity with me. They gave him the order to keep me alive, or else, and he came up with this ingenious idea. He implanted the original housing. He kept me alive long enough to create the first Arc Reactor."

Everyone's eyes widened. Steve was the first one to recover. "Y-you made that in _captivity_? With what?"

"Um," Tony had to think about it for a minute, "What tools they had for me, the guts of about a dozen bombs, and some scraps they had. You can be impressed. Oh, hold on, JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Bring me Pepper's gift. You know the one."

"Very well sir." DUM-E trundled into the room after a moment, glass box in his robotic hand. "Thanks DUM-E. This, my friends is that first reactor. Pepper got it mounted for me."

Tony set it down on the glass table, and they picked it up and looked at it in turn. They could tell a difference. It was bulkier, less sleek, with wires that poked out in various places. A bronze plate on the base read _Proof that Tony Stark Has a Heart._ Steve saw the technology, but didn't really have the background to appreciate it. All he could see was how _long_ the thing was, and how deep it must have sunk into Tony's chest. At least a good four inches.

Thor's forehead crinkled again. "As impressive as this craftsmanship is, I do not understand. Why were they holding you, Friend Tony? Why not kill you like in honest battle?"

Tony gave the Asgardian a wry smile. "These people aren't really the type for honest battle. They sneak and kill in the night. I was no warrior, I was a rich kid with an MIT degree. They wanted me to build weapons for them."

Everyone, save Bruce again, looked a little panicked. "Did you?" asked Steve.

"At ease soldier. No, I didn't. But they really wanted me to. At first I was all brave and noble, saying 'Never!' and stupid shit like that. Then the decided to…_persuade_ me."

Bruce was shaking, and couldn't handle it anymore. "I'm sorry, Tony; I can't listen to this anymore."

"S'Ok, big guy, you go and cool off. I'll call you when we're done." Bruce nodded, and quickly left for the Hulk-proof lockdown room they made for when Bruce needed to let off some steam. "Ok, so where were we?"

Natasha cleared her throat. "Persuasion."

"Oh, yeah, so after I decided to be all gallant, they thought they should use outside methods of convincing me to comply. Waterboarding was their _persuasion_ of choice." Tony shuddered at the memories that were bashing at the inside of his head. Clint, Steve, and Natasha all blanched, while Thor looked lost again. "Thor," Tony supplied, "waterboarding is where you lay a cloth over someone's nose and mouth, then pour water over their face repeatedly. It's a way of drowning someone on dry land." Tony wrapped an arm around himself and the god looked sick. "They did that to me for…days. I can't really remember. I started to get sick. Water in the lungs. Not good for the health. God knows how I didn't get pneumonia. Anyway, my chest was still attached to the battery at this point. Yinsen didn't have a lot to work with so there were bare wires sticking out of my chest, which really don't play well with water. I was crumbling. I wasn't trained for torture! I was a damn civilian! But then I came up with an idea to get us out of there. I said yes."

"_What?_ They would have killed you even you made the damn bombs for them! You must have known that."

"Yes, Clint, I did. I _said_ I'd build it. I lied, stupid. Anyway, they gave me all the equipment I needed, some bombs to use as a template, and time. First thing on my agenda was the Reactor. Then I made a suit."

Everyone _ohh_ed in comprehension. "That was the Mark I, wasn't it?" asked Natasha excitedly.

"Yep. And it was a piece of crap." Tony snorted at the memory of that suit, in comparison to the one he was planning. "Still a rather impressive piece of engineering, I'll admit. So the leader of Ten Rings, Raza, his name was, demanded a due date, that we give him the missile tomorrow. So Yinsen and I stayed up all night working on it."

"We were so close to being done," Tony began to draw into himself, eyes glazing over. The team could tell he was staring at something they could not see. "So close. We were downloading the startup info into the suit, it was a slow process because they had absolute _dinosaurs_ of computers, friggin' ancient. I was going to bust out of there, guns blazing, kill every single one of those bastards, get Yinsen, and be home for dinner. While I was sitting in the suit, waiting for it to start we could hear Raza and his goons coming for the missile we'd promised. There was no way we would have had enough time. I couldn't move, I was stuck in the suit, and Yinsen grabbed a gun, and went out there to buy time. Suicide move." Tony drew in a long shuddering breath, tears shining in his eyes, "Anyway, he did that and the suit _finally_ powered up, so I smashed and blasted my way out of there. I found Yinsen by the mouth of the cave. He told me he wanted to die, that he wanted to see his family and that I shouldn't throw away his gift. 'Don't waste it' he said to me, 'Don't waste your life'."

"He died in my arms." Tony let a few tears slip down his face at the memory of the man who saved and changed his life. The others were looking teary, too. After a few seconds of silent respect, Tony began to talk again.

"I killed them."

The others looked at Tony. He still had tears on his face, still staring off into the distance. He shook himself back into the present. "Most of them. I was glad at least that I had gotten Raza. I thought he was dead, but the bastard got lucky. I killed as many as I could, and flew off with the survivors shooting at me, but the damn suit broke apart. I got rescued, came home, and shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries."

Steve and Clint shared shocked glances. Tony chuckled at their expressions. "Yeah, I got that a lot. _A weapon's company that doesn't make weapons?_ What I was worried about is how a terrorist organization like Ten Rings got a hold of my tech. Turns out Obadiah Stane, closest thing I ever had to a dad, was selling them to Raza behind my back. Obie also was the one who paid Ten Rings to abduct and kill me in the first place."

Tony paused. Steve and Clint looked murderous, while Natasha looked just a little sad. She had already heard this part of the story. Thor thundered, "BETRAYAL!"

A grimace crossed Tony's face. "That's not the end of it. He gathered the scraps of the Mark I and was building his own suit. He just didn't have a power source because I had the only one in existence. Two, actually, one in my chest and one in the case." Tony gestured to the old Reactor nestled between its glass panes. "He wanted an army of Iron Men. But to do that, he needed the Arc Reactor. He came to my home in Malibu, and he—he paralyzed me, temporarily.

"He ripped the Arc Reactor out of my chest and left me to die."

Tony squeezed his eyes shut against the pain. He thought that eventually the pain of the betrayal would fade, but it was just numbed. As long as he didn't give it too much thought, it was fine, but as soon as he ripped the Band-Aid off and relived the incident, it hurt all over again.

"Well, long story short, I used the old reactor, whupped up on some Obie ass, nearly died, and saved the day. Like normal. But then I started to get sick again."

Clint groaned. "There's _more_?"

"Yes, feathers, I told you it was a long one. Basically, I was being poisoned by the palladium in the Reactor. I was dying."

Steve rubbed his temple. "The thing keeping you alive was poisoning you?"

"Yep, and thanks to one Ms. Natalie Rushman," Tony shot a glance at Natasha, who snorted at her old alias, "I was able to stay alive to create a new element that my father had found. I call it _Starkanium_! Well, that problem is solved, and I have Starkanium powered Arc Reactors now. Palladium is bad. No me gusta. So to make any new reactors now I have to use a particle accelerator, which is very difficult, and I really don't want to have to do that.

"If I was never Iron Man again, this Arc Reactor," Tony tapped the center of his chest, "would work for the rest of my life. It would actually work for about seventy lifetimes, give or take. The problem arises when I use it to power my suits. That uses up all the power in these things, and I have to change them out every so often. And they can get damaged in fights.

"Now…I think the Reactor is failing again. It's been sending this intense pain all through my chest. I don't know why, or what it's doing, but I felt my heartbeat stutter last time it happened. Bruce and I are looking into it."

Steve leaned forward, "What can we do?"

"What I need from you guys is the knowledge that, if the situation arose, you would be able to help me with replacing it. Bruce can do it most of the time, but if he's feeling green neither of us want him messing around in my chest. Can you guys do that for me?"

Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor all looked at each other, then back at Tony. Steve answered for all of them. "What do we need to know?"

Tony smiled in relief. It was a good feeling, knowing people had your back.

oOo

Bruce tugged his clothes back on. He had hurriedly stripped before the Other Guy burst through his skin so he wouldn't have ruined _another_ pair of pants. As he tucked in his blue button down and rolled up the sleeves, JARVIS pinged on. "Dr. Banner, Sir has requested you're presence in the living room, as they are done discussing sensitive matters."

Bruce walked out of the room—cell—and said, "Thank you JARVIS. Tell Tony I'm coming."

"Very well, Dr. Banner."

oOo

Bruce walked back into the family room to a ridiculous sight. Tony was lying down on the carpet, acting injured, and Steve had a spare Reactor, apparently trying to practice replacing it without actually removing the one in Tony's chest. Steve was flustered. All the others were yelling advice at him, and Tony was hamming it up.

"No, Steve, plug that wire in first!"

"Don't just shove it in; you have to line it up!"

"Help, Steve, I'm dyin' here!"

"YOU ARE FAILING, CAPTAIN! ALLOW ANOTHER TO HAVE A VALIANT ATTEMPT!"

"It's been a minute, Steve, I'm hemorrhaging!"

"You're gonna kill him!"

"Choking- help- gahh!"

"STOP YELLING AT ME!"

Bruce took one look at this asinine scene in front of him, and collapsed into helpless laughter.

oOo

**To all of you who wished me a Happy Birthday, thank you!**

**Also, thank you to everyone who made it a point to review every single chapter. It really means a lot to me.**

**REVIEW NOTES!**

**Special agent ali: yeah I'm brutal to the poor dude. And I just get worse. But I love their concern.**

**Kermit's Soft Kitty: Love the username! *Soft kitty, warm kitty* Anywhoo, thank you for that it really means a lot to me.**

**Piperijanay Alexandria: Ohh, that sounds fun, I want one!**

**Ashleykhl: Thanks! The support means a lot to me!**

**QueenofIron: Well what was he expecting, antagonizing the Black Widow? Come on, Anthony. Smh. Thanks, I really enjoyed the writing the fanfic-within-a-fanfic.**

**Pegasi1: Thanks, and I know, poor Tony, this was a terrible conversation to have.**

**LilyLove7: No shame in laughing by yourself! I do it all the time reading in public! I'm so glad I could make you laugh!**

**Ondori-Naramaki: YAY PWESENTS! You don't even know, I am a three year old about some presents. Tasha's apology will come in the next chapter.**

**DetectiveAtWork: Thanks, and here's an update just for you!**

**Rose: There you are! Yeah, I love to read stories that update frequently, and I can't let a story sit. They get stale and I lose interest, so it benefits both of us! Thank you for Birthday wishes!**

**MindMaster: Update for you, my dear!**

**Clintashaforever: FANTASTIC username! I ship them so hard it hurts! I had that plot bunny hopping around for a while, and I'm glad it worked. **


	5. The Woes of Bruce Banner

**I. Am. So. Sorry. After being sooooo good about updating in a timely manner, I go and do this…Welp, its excuse time. Here goes. Classes started to kick my butt, I've been having familial issues, my roommate moved out, I was being lazy, and I had the most HORRENDOUS CASE OF WRITER'S BLOCK EVER. YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND. I HATE IT. SO. MUCH. **

**Thank you to all who were so kind as to review, favorite and follow. You make my world go 'round, and all that.**

**Per requests, here's some mild Pepperony for your pizzas.**

******READ THIS NOTE IT'S IMPORTANT******

**Ladies, gentlemen, gods, and variations thereupon; it's time to play **_**SPOT THAT REFERECE! **_**First one who can correctly find the reference and name the Fandom wins a box of virtual Chocolate Frogs! (Btw, that is NOT the reference.) You will also be granted a shoutout on the next chapter's Author's Notes. Nicknames like Point-Break don't count. That's too obvious, and I expect my amazing readers to think outside the proverbial box. May the odds be ever in your favor! (that's also not the reference…)**

oOo

"But why does it have to be so damn _big_?" Tony whined. He was currently in the medical suite of Avengers Tower, and was backed into a corner by a needle wielding Bruce. Tony had his arms tightly crossed to prevent access to the veins, and was staring in terror at the Bruce's right hand.

Bruce sighed. "Come on, Tony! The great Iron Man, afraid of one needle?"

Tony gulped. "That's not a needle, bro, that's a friggin' PVC pipe! I'm not doing it!"

Bruce glared at Tony for a moment longer, and then decided to bring out the big guns. "JARVIS?" he called.

"Yes, Dr. Banner?"

"Make the call. The one we talked about earlier." Bruce had known getting some blood for testing from Tony was going to be like hauling the Hulk around on a leash, so he had already made contingency plans. The sound of a dial tone echoed on loud speaker over the room, and now Tony was worried.

"Who did you call, Banner? JARVIS, _who did he call_?!"

"I am afraid I cannot answer that question, Sir. Dr. Banner has frozen the overrides."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BABY? _WHO ARE YOU CALL-"_

'_Pepper Pots here.'_

Tony was livid. "You called Pepper? _My Pepper?"_

They could hear the sound of a long suffering sigh from the other end. _'Hello Bruce. Is he giving you trouble?'_

"As a matter of fact, Pepper, he is."

"Pepper, I am not, he's trying to stab me with a _needle_, Pep! He's-"

'_Anthony Edward Stark.'_

Tony quailed at redhead's tone. _'You know good and well that Bruce won't hurt you. You need these blood tests. You will give him your arm, and do it graciously. I'm still not very happy with you.'_

"What did I do now?"

'_You should have called me the moment you suspected anything was wrong. Now I'm in Hong Kong, on a business trip that will take at _least_ two weeks, for _your company, _and you hide something like this from me?! Remember the last time you did that? You almost died!'_

Tony frowned and looked at the linoleum. He still felt guilty about hiding the palladium poisoning from her. "Sorry, Peps. You know I love you, right?"

They heard Pepper give a sigh. _'Love you too, Tony. _Please _take care of yourself.'_

"I will. Bye, Peps."

'_Bye, Tony. I'll call in a few hours." Click._

Tony threw back his head with a theatrical groan, and made his way to the examination table, which he threw himself upon in a manner of great frustration. Bruce made his way over and began to prep Tony's arm with an alcohol pad. "That was a low blow, Banner." Tony continued to give Bruce the death stare, and Bruce chose to completely ignore it.

"Alright, Tony." Tony squeezed his eyes shut. "On three, OK? One…Two-"

"OUCH! What the hell happened to three?!"

Bruce quickly filled five of the little vials. "Tricked you into not tensing up. Bad thing is, that trick only works the one time." He gently pulled the needle from Tony's vein, replaced it with a cotton ball and bent Tony's arm. "See there?" He said as he wrapped pink tape around the cotton, "What was all that fuss about?"

Tony opened his eyes, and sat up, grumbling, "Stupid- doctors- pink bandages- called Pepper- asshole…."

"I think Pepper mentioned something about being gracious…"

The glare was back. "Did the wrap really have to be _pink_, Bruce? Or are you trying to test me?"

"It's a good look for you."

Tony got up with a huff, and went to leave. "Oh, no you don't," Bruce said, "You've got to come with me to S.H.I.E.L.D medical."

"To S.H.E.I.L.D? Why?"

"You need a CT scan, and that's one of the things that you don't have in this house. It will take two hours, max. You'll be back in the lab in no time."

oOo

A few hours later, Tony slumped down on the glass wall of the elevator at Avengers Tower. He absolutely _hated_ doctor's visits, hated everything about them. It was something about lying down on a cold table with people poking and prodding that brought his Afghanistan days back with a vengeance. The trip wasn't really that bad, but it was annoying, and he was glad to be back. Also, he was _starving._

The elevator dinged, and he stepped off, only to hear the sounds of arguing from the living room. Tony identified Clint's voice, saying, "No, we watched that one last week, and besides it's a chick-flick!"

"Is not!" That was Jane. "Titanic is a historical tragedy, and besides, I do not want to see another war movie. _Saving Private Ryan _gets old after a while."

Tony strode in to the room like he owned the place, (oh, wait…), and said, "What's the problem, kiddies?"

Steve shot Tony a look. "They can't decide on what movie to watch."

Tony hummed thoughtfully. "Well, we've done war stuff, some black-and-white for the Cap, girl movies-" ("_Is not_!") "-and some horror, so what about…" Tony looked at the screen of the TV, where JARVIS was displaying Tony's DVD collection, "fantasy? Like, um, _Chronicles of Narnia_?" The others looked at the screen dubiously, but Tony was having none of it.

"Nuh-uh, we're supposed to be exposing Point-Break and Capsicle to all genres. Besides, I grew up on these books. The movies aren't half bad either." Slightly mollified, the others turned back to the TV as JARVIS darkened the room and the opening credits rolled.

Half a bowl of popcorn later, everyone seemed to be getting into it. Even Thor, from his customary place with Jane on some pillows on the floor, was enjoying it, after being explained to what cricket was. Steve liked it because it was from his era; he could relate to this war, and to the feeling of being left behind.

Tony began to realize that something was wrong with Thor not much later. After Edmund began to lie about Lucy and his visit through the wardrobe, Thor's muscled shoulders tensed. As the movie continued, he got more and more worked up. Finally, when Edmund went to the Ice Palace, and betrayed his family, Thor stood up suddenly, and all but ran from the room.

All the pieces of Thor's behavior clicked in Tony's genius brain, and suddenly he didn't feel like such a genius. _Ohh, bad choice, Tony. God, I'm stupid._ Jane made to get up and follow her boyfriend out of the room, but Tony waved her down. "Nah, stay here, I got this."

She reluctantly returned to her place on the floor, and Tony just barely heard Natasha say "What was that about?" before he turned a corner.

"JARVIS, where's Thunderpants?"

"If you mean Thor, Sir, he is currently on the roof."

Tony made a quick detour into the kitchen and shouted, "Thanks, JARV!" over his shoulder.

oOo

"Hey Point-Break."

Thor looked back over his shoulder at Tony, who was stepping off of the elevator onto the roof, then back at the sunset over the Manhattan skyline. With the city silhouetted by the dying sun, you could barely see the scars left by the Chitauri incident. Thor sighed. "Hello, Tony."

"Want a Pop-Tart? I haven't really eaten all day, except that popcorn, so I snagged us a box. Here" Thor felt the corners of his mouth lift a little at the little foil-wrapped package that Tony proffered as he settled next to Thor on the edge of the high-rise. "Come on, Goldie, take the Pop-Tart."

Thor took it, and took a bite (strawberry, his favorite) and chewed slowly before asking, "I feel this was not the only reason you joined my here, my friend."

Tony looked at the god sitting next to him. Bathed in gold and orange from the sinking sun, Thor looked like a statue cast in bronze. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about why you tore out of there like that. Sorry about that movie by the way."

Thor looked at Tony sharply "How did you know?"

"I took a guess. It's Loki isn't it?"

Another sigh. "Yes. My thoughts are often with my brother. This Edmund betrayed his family, he hurt them greatly, and for what, an Ice Witch he just met? Bah!"

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. Or, maybe he was jealous of his brother. Either way, he was an idiot. But you know what? I'm going to break a personal rule and give you a spoiler. _Edmund comes back_. In the end, he sees what's right, and helps fix what he did wrong. He can't undo it, but his brother welcomes him back with open arms."

As Tony spoke, he looked at Thor, _really_ looked. Usually he couldn't see past the language and idiosyncrasies, but Thor was a Prince. A friggin' _Prince_! And a _god!_ The pressure that Thor was under suddenly showed on his face. He looked old. Tony knew he was old, but it never really felt real exactly how old he was. So many years that had not weathered his face weighed his eyes down. They held hundreds of years of responsibility and fighting, and Tony found a new respect for his fellow Avenger in this moment. People underestimated Thor all the time, and he just took it with a smile.

Thor rested his head in his hands. "When last I went home, I went to visit Loki in the dungeons under the citadel. He did not speak to me, even when I pleaded with him. He looked through me, as if I were not there. The only reaction I got was when I called him 'Brother,' and then he just glared at me. No words from the Silvertounge. And when I questioned the guards, they told me he hasn't spoken since his sentencing, which was months ago! I love him so dearly, but he hurt me deeply."

After a short moment of deliberation, Tony awkwardly rested a hand on the prince's broad shoulder. "Hey, bro, if anyone knows about family pulling some crap, it's me. Remember when I told you someone stole my Arc Reactor?" He tapped the glass that shone through his shirt, and Thor nodded. "Well, that man was the father that Howard Stark never was. He practically raised me."

Thor took his head from his hands and said, "I still cannot believe he tried to kill you. Like L-loki…tried to kill me."

As the sun finished its decent below the horizon, leaving the darkening sky smudged in reds and purples, Tony agreed. "Sucks. I know. But listen." He punched Thor on the shoulder, "You've got Jane sitting in there. You've got Steve, and Tasha, and Bruce, and Clint. Fury likes you too. Hell, you've got me, and I'm better than a dozen brothers, yeah?"

Thor smiled and rolled his eyes at the arrogant man sitting next to him. "You come close. Thank you, Tony." They stood, and picked up the remaining Pop-Tarts that had lay forgotten.

"Any time, Princess. Now, let's go back and finish the rest of that movie, the fight scenes are incred-"

Thor grabbed at Tony's shoulders as he clutched at his chest and nearly fell. "Are you well, my friend? Perhaps we should-"

"No! No, I'm fine, its just-" Tony gasped for air, and then continued, "I don't like this. No, I freaking hate it. What the hell am I going to do if this happens next time Fury needs us? I don't—I _won't_—be a liability to the team!"

Thor's face tightened. "Look at me, Tony." The billionaire reluctantly looked at him. "You are a skilled warrior, and are important to us. We cannot wage war with you wallowing in misery."

Tony deliberated for a second, then flashed Thor his best Paparazzi grin. "Thanks, Point-Break." He slung an arm around Thor's shoulders and they made their way inside.

"I must ask, why do you refer to me as Point-Break?"

"Oh, that's right. We got to watch another movie tonight."

oOo

Bruce scrubbed at his tired eyes, and looked back at the computer screen. The customized touch screen Stark band computer displayed the results of Tony's CT scan. The radiologists at S.H.E.I.L.D. were thoroughly unnerved by the scan, and the doctors could make neither heads nor tails of it. Really, there was nothing wrong with him. Other than the huge circle of metal extending at least three and a half inches down into his chest cavity, wires reaching around all the veins and arteries, and large pieces of twisted metal shoved into the soft tissue of his chest, but besides that, Tony was bafflingly healthy.

The first time Bruce tried to look at the scans, he came _that close_ to having a Hulk-out, because he could really see how much damage had been done to his friend. Bruce shoved those thoughts aside and continued to scour the scans. His chest showed tons of internal scar tissue, and some pieces of shrapnel that were a bit too close to Tony's heart and aorta for comfort, but there was nothing—_nothing—_that should be causing the type of pain that Tony was experiencing.

Bruce went down his mental list of possible causes, eliminating them as he went on, but the theories were getting wilder, and they started making less sense as he continue. He gripped his hair in his hands, and felt the familiar rage being to bubble up from deep inside him. _Tony needs me to help him_, Bruce thought,_ Why can't I do this for him? Why can't I help him?_ His limbs shuddered and he quickly clamped down on himself before he destroyed the entire floor.

_I just need to look harder._ The scientist ran a hand through his hair. _I _will _help Tony. I _will _fix this. _He quickly gathered up all of the papers scattered out before him, and shut down the files on the computer screen. As all the windows began to close, he finally noticed the time. 6:13 A.M., the screen displayed. _I've been here all night. Huh. Well, Tony, don't say I never did anything for you. _

Bruce quickly contemplated going to bed, but then shot that idea down. He was normally up by seven thirty anyway, and they he had a meeting with one of Fury's scientists at noon, so he couldn't have just slept the day away. Besides, Steve would have been up for a while already, and would be returning from his morning run soon. That soldier was as regular as clockwork, something Bruce appreciated.

He stood up and stretched like a cat, the vertebrae in his back popping like bubble wrap. The need for a good strong cup of coffee was making itself known, so he got onto the elevator, rubbing his bloodshot eyes with one hand, clutching papers with his other. The chairs in the kitchen were beaconing for him to sit and relax, but he knew he couldn't. The way he felt, if he sat down for just a minute, he would be completely out, and no one dared to wake him up, because he could get grumpy if awoken, and he had that _damn meeting_… So he decided on making breakfast for Steve and himself. Maybe the smells of 'waking-up food' would trick his brain into being more awake. Yeah. Doubt it.

Bruce was just sliding the second of two fluffy omelets onto a plate when Steve came in, hair slightly damp from his shower. "Good morning, Bruce. This for me?" he asked, gesturing at the second place setting, with bacon, toast, orange juice, and now an omelet.

"Yeah. Thought you might be hungry."

Steve shot him a grateful smile, and dug in with gusto. Bruce picked absentmindedly at his toast as he pecked away on the StarkPad that displayed the CT scan. Steve saw this, and saw Bruce's bloodshot, red rimmed eyes, with dark bags, and said, "So was staying up all night worth it?"

Bruce quickly looked at Steve, and then chuckled humorlessly at himself. "I look that bad, huh?"

"You don't look _bad_, just tired. You aren't going to help Tony by running yourself into the ground."

Bruce ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up and adding to his overall rumpled appearance. "I know, I just…there is nothing here! Nothing that could be causing his symptoms." Bruce scattered the papers on the table in frustration.

Steve took a moment to judge the extent of Bruce's bad mood, and then asked in a soothing sort of tone, "What are his symptoms?"

"Mild headache, mild fatigue, though that could be from not sleeping for seventy two hours, and a sporadic pain in his chest. Tony said it feels like electric burns."

A crease appeared in Steve's forehead. "I don't know… you'll think of something. I know you will." He leaned forward to look at the papers. "May I?"

"Of course, Steve. It might be a good thing to have a fresh, unbiased set of eyes."

Bruce began to eat with more energy as Steve picked up a printout of Tony's ECG. Apparently, JARVIS could monitor it whenever Tony was in the Tower. Steve looked at the rhythmic peaks and valleys, tracing them with his finger. "Tell me, Bruce, is Tony going to be good for a fight?"

Bruce looked up from his eggs. "How do you mean?"

"What happens if Tony has an attack while we're on a call from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"I don't know," Bruce stated, "He could be fine. Or he could fall from the sky, and he was just lucky that the Other Guy was in a good mood when that last happened."

Steve grimaced at the memory of Tony plummeting to the hard concrete. Then he noticed something…strange in the paper in front of him. "Hey, what exactly are these things supposed to look like? How many peaks?"

"There's supposed to be three for each heartbeat. A little one, the big one in the middle, and another little one."

Steve heart began to speed up as he looked at all the little squiggles. "And when was Tony's last attack? Did he have one at…" Steve checked the timestamp below the markings, "Seven twenty-three?"

Bruce leaned in at hearing Steve's tone. "What is it? What did you see?"

"Like I said, I'm no doctor, but here," he pointed to the time, "there are only two peaks. The first little one is missing."

Bruce paled and snatched the printouts back, matching all of the times of the attacks to missing or abnormal P-waves. "How could I have missed that?"

"What is it? Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"I think so…if I'm right, then-"

Just as he was going to reveal his suspicions, JARVIS could be heard over the intercom system. "CODE RED. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE."

oOo

**So, mild cliffie. I guess if you really want to know, you can google what this means. I did my homework, and the P-wave thing is an actual symptom of a medical condition, so some doctors or nurses out there might just be having Eureka moments. If so, please do not put them in the reviews, as that would be a spoiler, and those are bad. No me gusta. **

**I'm just going to apologize for this chapter as a whole. Not much happens, and I was really not feeling it. Hopefully now that this is out there, I can keep going, and the writer's block will go away. I swear there should be some sort of vaccine for that stuff. **

**I was going to do review replies, but it is one in the morning, and I am tired. I'll catch up next chapter, pinky swear. **

**But Kudos to kiwi8friut for being the fiftieth reviewer, The Homunculi Twins for being the fiftieth favorite, and Stealer. Of. Socks. For being the hundredth follower. YOU ARE THE BESTEST!**

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate **


	6. Captain in a Battlefield

**Ugh. Can someone start working on a cure for writer's block? I know there's a doctor in the house somewhere. Can this be qualified as a form of cancer? Get like, I dunno, some cool armbands and a walk-a-thon or something?**

**I digress.**

**So, sad day, no one guessed the reference. I think this may be my fault and I used something too small from a fandom that was too small. If you want to know, PM me. I don't want to ruin the surprise for my future readers. HINT: it was from the CW show **_**Supernatural**_**. It's a pretty fantastic show, you should check it out. I LOVE YOU CASTIEL! Ok, that was my fangirl limit of the day.**

**I have never done a fight scene. So this might just be the most craptastic chapter yet. I just decided what they were going to be up against like maybe five minutes ago, and that's after watching Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers in succession. It's a rainy day, and DON'T JUDGE ME. Also, I make reference to the Mark IV suit. I don't know if that is really the one he used against Vanko in IM2, but I'm claiming artistic liberty, and we're going to pretend it was. K?**

**This was originally supposed to be longer. Much longer. But I'm just really having a problem spitting the rest of this out. **

**So here goes nothing.**

oOo

Bruce and Steve's heads snapped up at the ceiling at JARVIS's announcement. They stared for a second, then locked eyes and shot from their chairs, scrambling for equipment and the rest of the team. As he raced down to his suite, Bruce could see Clint jumping out of his room, still in his pajamas, but already completely alert and ready for combat.

A few minutes later, they were all in full gear in a meeting room with Fury, and a semi-awake Tony was bitching for all to hear. "Why for God's sake can't the bad guy wait for a more _normal_ time to beat the crap out of us?" He groaned and tossed back the rest of his coffee. Fury ignored that comment and snapped "Feet off my table, Stark, and pay attention. Alright, here's what we got. We've dealt with him before, he's a jackass named Hammer."

Tony choked on his coffee, spitting it everywhere, and tipped his chair back, landing in a sprawl on the floor. "Hammer?! Like _Justin _Hammer?"

Fury tipped his head in Tony's direction, who was struggling into an upright position and trying to maintain as much dignity as possible. Natasha spoke up. "I thought we had him locked up."

Fury's face tightened. "We did. The man has connections, and _some people_ higher up thought that this guy was being led by Vanko, and that he didn't know what the drones were gonna do."

"Um, with all respect, Fury, I'm calling bullshit on that one," Clint said, his features closed and his eyes sharp and hooded. Mission mode.

"I know," said the Director his one good eye flashing, "I'm going to have some words with people when we're done here."

Steve steepled his fingers under his chin. "So what's he doing now?"

Fury sighed and rested his hands on a bulging file in front of him. All the eyes in the room zeroed in on it. "Agent Romanov. You know what's in this file. I bet you can guess what I'm gonna say. Do you think Stark can handle this?" Tony's eyes locked with Natasha's, as she suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

"Director, I really don't think I sh-"

"Can he handle it, Agent?"

"Can I handle _what_, exactly?" Tony blurted, confused and irritated.

Natasha sighed. "Yes. I think so."

"Well good. Stark, this is against my better judgment, but…you're in on this one." Fury looked at Tony's face for a moment, then, apparently done with his examination, shoved the file to the center of the table. "He's partnered with a terrorist organization cell called the Ten Rings." Every head in the room swiveled to look at Tony, who blanched.

_Flash._ Bag on his head, facing a camera. _Flash._ Struggling to breathe, water pouring over his head_. Flash_. Working quickly, praying the captors not come, not yet. _Flash_. Chest erupting in agony. _Flash_. Hot ember coming to Yinsen's face. _Flash_. Heat exhausting him_. Flash_. Buckets of water. _Flash_. Car battery_. Flash_. Bomb_. Flash._ Suit. _Flash_. Water. _Flash_. Screams. _Flash._ Yinsen. _Flash._ Pain. _Flash_ Yinsen. _Flash._ Yinsen! _Flash_. YINSEN!

He gasped, suddenly realizing that his team was staring at him. Steve had apparently called his name a few times, and worry was stamped across his features. Steve spoke again. "You OK, there, Tony?"

"No, I mean, yeah, I'm fine, fine. So, uh, Ten Rings huh? Thought those guys got put down."

"We did too." Fury said, "But apparently you only knocked out one of the Rings. Raza was not the head honcho."

Tony rubbed his temples. "And now Hammer's working for them. Fan-freakin'-tastic."

"You're telling me. For those of you not in the know here, Hammer once worked with Ivan Vanko, who helped him make these HammerDrones. Now," Fury hit a remote, and the screen behind him came to life, with a video of a battalion of the robots flying, "Hammer has given Vanko's design to the Ten Rings who want to use them for an attack on the city. They're about an hour out, still over the Atlantic."

Steve went into Captain America mode. "How many?"

"Couple hundred, give or take." Fury paused again, considering how much to say in front of Tony. "The Ten Rings most certainly is making this an act of terrorism, but for Hammer, it seems a bit personal. He wants to hurt you, Tony. And he isn't too picky about how he goes about doin' that. He sent this along to us."

Fury pressed another button on the remote, and the screen switched to a picture of Hammer in a suit and a manic grin. "You think you can just lock _me_ up, Stark? Well think again. I'm coming for YOU!" He pointed at the screen and laughed, and the video flickered and died.

Natasha snorted. "I see melodramatic villain wanna-be's like that on a daily basis."

"Wanna-be or not, he's got an arsenal of drones based off of Stark's original suit design. We might want to take him a bit more seriously, Agent Romanoff."

Tony's brow was creased in thought. "Has Hammer made any improvements to the design?"

"From the footage, it doesn't seem so."

The inventor's face grew dark, a small predatory smile danced across his lips. "Good. That means I know all the major weaknesses that these tin cans have. And maybe he's been a bit tied up in the Penitentiary, but I have made quite a few changes since the Mark IV. I'm actually on the Mark IIX. So bring it on, Hammer."

oOo

A little over an hour later, no one had time to appreciate Tony's new suit. These drones, while relatively easy to pick off, were starting to overwhelm them with the sheer numbers. Steve looked up during a momentary lull to see a Hot-Rod-Red blur shooting blasts, and taking down swaths of the drones. He wiped sweat from his eyes and then slung his shield at an oncoming drone, hitting it across the joints at the waist. Tony's information was good, and the drone broke in half at the blow to one of its major weak spots. Snatching the shield back, turned to block a barrage of bullets from another drone that came up behind him, which ricocheted off the vibranium to blow holes in the drone that just shot them. He ducked and swept his feet under the heels of another drone, flipped it over, and ripped out the wiring from the back of its neck in one fluid motion. The thing jerked, stuttered, and fell still.

On and on they fought. Steve was able to catch glimpses of Natasha, jumping and flipping, leaving broken machinery strewn in her wake. Clint was up on a rooftop with arrows sent buzzing so fast from his bow, that he didn't seem to be taking aim at all, but Steve knew much better. A giant green mass roared out to the left. _There's Banner_, he thought, and took down another drone.

"Captain!" A booming voice grabbed his attention, and he spun, only to jump out of the way as the drone that had come from behind him shot a rocket in his direction. Thor jumped in and crushed the drones head in with a decisive stroke from his hammer. The offending drone crumpled dead at his feet.

"Thanks, Thor," Steve gasped. Thor clapped him on the shoulder, and ran off swinging Mjolnir from a hand, then flew off in a blast of lighting.

The battle soon became one long blur to him. The world narrowed to the robot in front of him, his shield, and occasionally his teammates. In the beginning, there was a plan, something about containment and evacuation zones, but that all went south as soon as the fleet of HammerDrones arrived.

A time later—Steve had no idea if it was minutes, or hours, or days—the last of the drones lay broken and scattered across the streets and sidewalks. He took a moment to catch his breath, and take inventory of his wounds. _Ribs-bruised, maybe one broken. Left shoulder- _he rolled the offending joint, and pain lashed through him, _ok none of that. Maybe something torn. A few burns. Some superficial cuts. Bullet graze on the right thigh. _

Now he looked around for his team. "Avengers, come in. Hawkeye, you copy?"

"_Copy that, Captain. No sign of any more bots this way and no major injuries. I'm located a few blocks away from your position."_

"Good. Widow?"

"_All clear, Captain. I'm fine, but there are a few civilians here, they need medical."_

"Iron Man, have JARVIS tell Fury."

"_Will do, Cap. I'm fine, thanks for asking."_

"Shut up, Stark. Thor, you there?"

"_I am here, Captain Rogers. All is well, and we are victorious."_

"Good. Do any of you have a visual on the Hulk?"

Tony piped up again, _"Um…I'm circling back; I think I saw him passed out in geeky doctor form a few minutes ago. I'll let you know."_

"Thanks, Stark. No one has major injuries?" The team chorused negatives on the coms.

"_Oh, lookey there, Bruce in all his naked, skinny self. Anyone got some extra sweatpants?"_

"Does he look OK, Stark?" Steve asked exasperatedly. Normally he could deal with Tony, but he was tired and his temper was short.

"_Looks fine from here, aside from the post-Hulk-bender unconsciousness._"

Steve gave a sigh of relief. The battle was won, there were minimal casualties, and his team was safe. He began to pick through the rubble to the just-landed quin-jet, when the fragile peace was shattered.

Shattered by a scream of agony and fear that came tearing through the coms.

Steve's heart stopped dead.

"TONY?!"

oOo

**I am a cruel, heartless bitch. And you know what? I ain't even mad, bro. **

**I know I'm a terrible person for that cliffie, and you really wanted to know what was wrong with poor Tony, (See my feelings about that above) but this really needed to be put out there. I can't deal with this just sitting in Microsoft Word for one more day. **

**I wrote this in bits and pieces, so if I mention something twice, or don't make any sense, MESSAGE ME AND I WILL FIX IT!**

**Also, Review replies on here take way too long, so I'm just PMing people from now on. IF YOU WANT A REPLY, SIGN THE HECK IN YOU LAZY BUMS.**__**Lurkers—you know who you are—get an account already!**

**I am so sick right now. I'm only publishing this because I am feeling too bad to sleep and REVIEWS ARE THE BEST MEDICINE! **

_*******I WILL NOT BE UPDATING UNTILL I HIT 125 REVIEWS!*******_

**Is that rude of me?**

**Again, ain't **_**even**_** mad.**

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate**


	7. The Worst Day Ever

**I Am So Sorry.**

**So unbelievably sorry. **

**I am a LIAR. **

**Whelp, excuse time. Bout of mild pneumonia, food poisoning, severe dehydration, passing out once, my computer erased this chapter like, twice, so this is the re-write of a re-write…and I've had midterms, and I'm double majoring, and I just finished season 5 of Merlin and needed time to grieve, and I've had writer's block. So…yeah. **

**I will never issue a challenge to reach a goal of reviews again. Because I don't write the stuff before hand (I like your suggestions) I never know when my muse will stop for a visit. She has currently been on strike. **

**And just a note, I do a teensy bit of delving into the relationship between Tony and Bruce, and I just wanted to let you know I fully support the platonic ScienceBros. I BroShip them. I BroShip them hard. And the Stark Spangled Banner. (all platonic of course, Pepperony is my OTP.)**

**Ladies, gentlemen, and variations thereupon; it's time to play **_**SPOT THAT REFERECE! **_**First one who can correctly find the reference and name the Fandom wins a box of virtual Chocolate Frogs! (Btw, that is NOT the reference.) You will also be granted a shoutout on the next chapter's Author's Notes. May the odds be ever in your favor! (that's also not the reference…) It's kinda small, easy to miss if you're not looking for it, so I'm going to tell you it refers to THE ANGEL OF THURSDAY. *hint hint nudge***

oOo

As crap as this day had already been, it just had to get worse, didn't it? Wasn't that Murphy's Law or something?

First Tony had been woken up by that stupid "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" alarm at Oh-Dark-Thirty, then he had been bitched out by Fury, then he _spilled his coffee_, a capital offense, then he found out that some of the people that had the biggest beef with him were back in town, and now this. Stupid. Fight.

As battles go, this really wasn't the worst that any of them had seen. Hammer Tech was just as crappy as he had remembered it. But these things were like bees. One or two, hey, no problem, just get a shoe and be on your merry way. But when that one or two decide to call in a million of their little buzzing buddies, it's a bit of a different story.

And lookie here. Just make my day worse.

_Sir_, JARVIS said, _there is a new damage report on the suit._

Well shit. JARVIS didn't just do those for nothing. "Talk to me, Jarv, what we got."

_Pressurization systems failing, sir. They seem to have been damaged in the last barrage. _

Tony dodged a spray of cheap missiles. "Details. How much we got left?"

_Pressurization systems running at twenty-three percent capacity, sir._ Tony swore violently, then dropped, _slowly_, back down closer to the earth. This system was the only thing allowing him to rise and dive as quickly as he did without him passing out with blood coming from his ears. Yeah. Not pretty. So, battle plans have to change a bit…

Wait, holy crap, was that Bruce? Tony was only able to see the dark hair and pale skin of the naked man lying unconscious before he was pulled back into the fight.

Tony ducked and rolled, blasted and smashed (Big Green would be so proud!), and soon, there were only three left. Three blasts to the circuit boards later, and they were…done.

As the last piece of smoking metal fell from the sky, Tony just hovered for a second and breathed. He took inventory of himself, (battered, but I'm fine) and the suit, (eesh. Needs some TLC), and then he heard the Captain over the headset in the suit.

"_Avengers, come in. Hawkeye, you copy?"_ Oh, thank god for that stupid soldier. If Steve hadn't done roll call, Tony would have had to do it, and god forbid anyone think he actually _liked_ these sons-of-bitches.

"_Copy that, Captain. No sign of any more bots this way and no major injuries. I'm located a few blocks away from your position."_ Whew. Clint was ok.

"_Good. Widow?"_

"_All clear, Captain. I'm fine, but there are a few civilians here, they need medical." _Natasha too. But she sounded like she was hurt, and trying to hide it. Tony, who had known Natasha for longer than Steve had, could tell the difference, but it was slight. He was willing to bet his Malibu car collection that Clint was worrying his feathery little ass off.

"_Iron Man, have JARVIS tell Fury."_

JARVIS was already working on it before Steve finished his sentence. Tony rolled his eyes at Steve's refusal to check up on Tony. Seems Tony wasn't the only one hiding a bit of brotherly love around here. "Will do, Cap. I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"_Shut up, Stark." _Tony rolled his eyes again. Then Steve asked,_ "Thor, you there?"_

"_I am here, Captain Rogers. All is well, and we are victorious."_

"_Good. Do any of you have a visual on the Hulk?"_

A thrill of genuine fear rushed through Tony. While he knew that nothing could really hurt Bruce, Tony was fiercely protective of all of his friends, and none less than his ScienceBro.

"Um…I'm circling back; I think I saw him passed out in geeky doctor form a few minutes ago. I'll let you know."

"_Thanks, Stark. No one has major injuries?"_

A chorus of _no_'s echoed through Tony's helmet. Tony let out another sigh of relief. And then, as Tony swooped back toward the open area where the Quinjet was just beginning to land, Tony spotted his best friend. Butt-ass naked. "Oh, lookey there, Bruce in all his naked, skinny self. Anyone got some extra sweatpants?" Tony swooped down to check on him, gently shaking his shoulder, which elicited a light groan from the doctor, who scrunched his eyes closer together and turned his head away. He didn't seem injured though, just like he didn't want to be woken up.

"_Does he look OK, Stark?"_ asked Steve in his I-Am-Captain-America-So-Don't-Mess-With-Me voice.

"Looks fine from here, aside from some post-Hulk-bender unconsciousness."

Bruce struggled to a sitting position, covering his nakedness awkwardly, and said, "Hey Tony. What happened? Is everyone OK?"

Tony flipped his mask up and gently patted the doctor on the shoulder with a red and gold hand. "Everything looks hunky-dory, Bruce. Now all we've got left to do is cleanup, and to arrest that rat bastard for good this time."

"Good, good," said Bruce distractedly, rolling his neck and shoulders to try to get some of the soreness out.

"Hey, the Quinjet just landed, so I'll go get you some pants or something, alright? Wouldn't want to make the Cap blush."

This comment did exactly what Tony wanted and made Bruce blush furiously. "Thanks, Tony."

With a double gun motion to his bestie, tony flipped his visor down, and went to blast off in search of Bruce's unmentionables.

As soon as Tony had crossed maybe a quarter of the intersection, in plain sight of where Bruce sat in an alley, something slammed into him so hard, it knocked him clear out of the sky and across the street.

Head pounding, ears ringing, and side burning to all hell (_must have broken a rib_, he thought in the back of his mind) Tony pushed himself up into a standing position, where he promptly got knocked down again and pinned by the biggest robot Tony had ever seen.

This thing was huge, bigger than the Iron Monger, but it was obvious that, while there couldn't have possibly been a man inside of it, Obadiah's suit was the original inspiration.

Dark grey, bulky arms reached down almost to the ground, where huge repulsors took the place of feet. A domed head swiveled completely around to stare at Tony with its small lit-up eyes.

Before Tony could do more than register all this information, the DeathBot (as Tony quickly dubbed it) reached down with incredible speed for its size and seized Tony's left arm and wrenched it around with a sickening crack.

Tony saw spots. He heard a scream echo in the near vicinity, but it took a moment for him to understand that it was his scream. As Tony looked down at his ruined arm, the DeathBot shoved him back into the rubble of the torn up street. He vaguely registered the cry of _"Tony!" _through the coms, but he was much more concerned with the way that his arm was on fucking fire, it felt like, and the metal incasing it was ripped and torn, pieces of it jamming into his skin, and—_Jesus Christ, is that a bone?!_

The DeathBot loomed over him, raising one arm in a promise of certain death, as Justin Hammer's voice sounded from the robot. _"I told you, Tony! I told you I'd make you pay for what you did to me! Now you're-"_

But what exactly Tony was they never found out, because a large mass of green fury roared and slammed into the robot, knocking it to the side, and ripping one of the large metal arms off and throwing it to the side. _Thanks, Banner, my friend, _Tony thought.

"Tony! Oh my God, Tony, are you OK?" Tony saw a blur of blond hair and Patriotism, and two black figures rushing in to help him, while a blur of red and gold and lightning flew towards the wreckage of the DeathBot still being pulverized by the Hulk.

His head was still pounding, ears ringing, eyes fuzzy, couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't breathe from where the thing smashed into his side. As he gasped in air, everything seemed to swirl around, making him feel the need to throw up everything he had ever eaten in his whole life, and then some, but wait, throwing up would hurt, and hurting's bad, so Tony swallowed hard against that reflex in his throat, and tried to move, to get up, to go home, to do something, but _ohmigod that hurts_.

"No, Tony don't move, just stay there, you hear me? Can you hear me Tony? Come on, Iron Ass, say something, you're never this quiet!"

_Oh. That must be Clint. Steve would never say _ass_. _

Tony tried to snap back with some witty retort but his brain was fresh out of wit at the moment, so a pained groan slipped from his lips instead. Hands were slipping around his head, fumbling with the manual release to start dismantling the suit.

"Guys, he's losing a lot of blood here!"

"Try to get his armor off!"

"Can you carry him to the quinjet?"

"-medical on standby."

"Pupils' uneven-"

And then, once Tony was sure this was as bad as his day could _possibly _be, it. Got. Worse.

He was expecting pain at this point; there was pain everywhere, in his arm, his head, his side. But what he did not expect was the freaking _torrent_ of agony that exploded from his chest, like a lightning bolt hit his chest straight on. Tony arched off the ground with a choked scream as the light in the Arc Reactor flared, dimmed, and flared again. He could feel it, the pain from the electricity, the shift of the shrapnel in his chest, the weight in his lungs as it became impossible to just _breathe_…

And he could feel his heart jerk once, and then completely stop.

oOo

**Well. Another Cliffie. **

**I'M SORRY OK?!**

**And if you want anything special to be in here (**MilkyWayGalaxy **your wish is my command!) just tell me, and I'll try to work it in. If you see anything hideously wrong with this, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TELL ME. I'M AN ENGLISH MAJOR I NEED PEER REVISION LIKE I NEED AIR. **

**The reason I broke his arm 1) he needs his hands. A compound fracture like this could completely ruin his left hand for good 2) I'm whumping on him elsewhere, as you can see, and 3) have you ever had a broken arm or leg? Have you seen those movies or read stories where someone breaks a limb and **_**just keeps on going?!**_** LIES. ALL LIES. THIS SHIT HURTS. **

**So, knives and pitchforks away, dear readers. **

**Until next time, **

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate!**


	8. The Waiting Game

**HELLLOOOOO INTERNET! How ya'll doin' tonight?! If I was doing any better I'd need background music! And it's three in the bloody morning, so guess who's going to be late to her eight o'clock Spanish class? Yo! No me gusta la clase de español. That's basically my entire Spanish vocabulary…**

**NEW GAME! So, whoever gives me the most awesome review gets a shout out and a sneak-peek into the next installment! I don't want mindless flattery, I want insight, ideas, GRAMMAR ISSUES, funnies! Make me laugh, and make me think! Do you want a certain scene in here? Do you want a character to say a certain thing? Do you want me to kill a character off? (probably not going to happen, but I'll enjoy entertaining your pitch) Anything goes!**

**Also, I will write a one-shot on the prompt of your choice for whoever submits my 200****th**** review! As long as it's in the Avengers fandom, and it doesn't really squick me, we're good!**

***WARNING* Blood and gore! It's not too bad, but this fic is rated T, so…**

**BTW guys, if I do a block of text **_like this, _**it's going to be a flashback. You probably will work that out based on context clues, but I'm covering my bases. **

**oOo**

Captain Steve Rogers was no stranger to pain. He lived in a state of constant sickness for the first two decades of his life. After that, he went through the horrific change into Captain America, and then he had fought in a war, during which he was in a plane crash and frozen to death. Upon awakening in a new millennium, he was thrust into another war, but not with Nazi Germany. Instead, he was fighting aliens. All of these things came with no insignificant amount of pain, but he bore it all like the soldier he was.

The only pain he has never been able to bear is the pain of watching a comrade fall and _not being able to do a thing._

He took his job as Captain and leader of the Avengers quite seriously, and he firmly believed that if it took lying on the proverbial wire and letting his team crawl over him, he would do it in a heartbeat. Seeing his men fall and die back in Germany haunted his dreams still, and he _refused_ to add any of the Avengers, any of his family, to that terrible list.

So as Steve watched, helplessly, as Tony was bleeding, choking, _screaming_…it was his worst nightmare.

Steve began running to Tony's side as soon as he heard that first cry. He slid to a stop next to him, and stopped dead for a moment when he saw the wreckage that was Tony's arm. Around the middle of Tony's bicep, his arm was bent back in half, where it _should not _have been. The red and gold of the suit was twisted and shredded, and the razor sharp pieces of ripped gold-titanium alloy were butchering the skin and muscles of his arm. Blood was pooling around the horrible wounds, obviously some vein or artery had been severed, but the worst of all was the jagged white shards of bone standing proudly from what used to be a perfectly functioning limb.

"Tony, oh my God," Steve cried, "Tony, are you OK?" Steve wasn't even sure that he knew what he was talking about. He just needed Tony to brush this off, to laugh and insist on getting some falafel or whatever food kick he was on today, and rush back to his lab like a child with a shiny new toy.

Clint and Natasha were close behind him, Natasha pulling back to call in Tony's condition. As Tony began to shift, and try to move, but fail, Clint pushed down on Tony's good shoulder, saying "No, Tony don't move, just stay there, you hear me?" Tony didn't answer. "Can you hear me Tony? Come on, Iron Ass, say something, you're never this quiet!" Clint's voice began to get a bit strained, as if trying not to show worry, and his deft archer's fingers felt around under the chin of Tony's helmet to pop the faceplate. Tony's face wasn't any better. He had a myriad of tiny cuts and bruises on his cheeks and forehead, and his brown eyes were wide and vacant.

Bruce, naked as the day he came into the world, staggered over. His arms and legs were shaking, and he looked about to drop, but was only staying upright by adrenaline and force of will.

The archer's eyes flicked up at Bruce. "Guys, he's losing a lot of blood here!"

Bruce knelt down and slipped a hand inside the helmet and under Tony's chin to take a pulse. "Try to get his armor off!" Steve went to work on the breast plate, running his hands over the metal for the tiny catches that would trigger the pieces to unlock.

"Steve!" Natasha said quickly, "can you carry him to the quinjet?" Her eyes unfocused for a moment, as she received orders via her earpiece.

"Yeah, now?" Steve made to pick Tony up.

Bruce swatted his hands away, "No, wait. Just let me look…"

"Well, whenever we can move him, Fury's got medical on standby." Natasha said, as Thor ran up behind her.

With shaking hands, Bruce waved in front of Tony's eyes, looking into them deeply. "Damn," he swore, "Pupil's uneven, so concussion, don't remove the rest of the helmet, it's keeping his neck aligned-"

And suddenly, Tony's eyes stretched wide open, and his whole body arched and spasmed, a terrible cry coming from his lips. Bruce and Steve both grabbed at him to keep him down, Bruce holding Tony's head and Steve bracing the ruined arm. The steady glow of the Arc Reactor flared so bright it was hard to look at it, then it dimmed to where it looked like a blue candle flame, and then flared brightly once more.

Tony shuddered inside the suit, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he was still.

Everyone paused for a second in shock, as Bruce's eyes widened.

"No pulse."

oOo

Fifteen steps north. Pause. Turn on heel. Fifteen steps south. Pause. Turn on heel.

This whole place was giving Steve a headache. The harsh lights above, the glaring reflections on the linoleum floor, the sterile smell of bleach and Hibiscrub, the whole place was designed to drive him to madness. The only thing keeping him sane, and not panicking under the weight of the worry circulating around his head, was the pacing. Precise. Sharp. Military stance.

Although it was helping Steve a great deal, it was making Clint more and more frustrated every pass Steve made down the hall. Suddenly, the agent snapped. "Will you sit down, Rogers? Jesus, you're making me twitchy."

Steve stopped and turned to his team. Thor was there, leaned against the wall, subdued for once, Natasha was sitting very still, legs crossed and foot bouncing, and Clint was—pardon the pun—_perched _on his seat, knees drawn up next to his chest like a child. His pale blue eyes never stopped looking, moving, analyzing, and, for now, following Steve's pacing circuit.

A sigh. "Sorry, Clint."

"S'alright, Captain." Clint unfolded his legs and slapped the polyester cushion of the seat next to him. "Sit down. Wearing a hole in the floor ain't going to make this any faster."

Steve scrubbed at his face with his hands. "I know, I just wish I could _do _something."

Natasha said quietly, "We all do." She never looked away from the spot that she had been staring at for the past God knows how many hours.

Sitting probably wasn't the best thing for Steve to do. When he sat, his mind was free to wander, and wander it did. And of course the first thing he thought of was the ride to the Helicarrier.

_Bruce had done compressions, and Tony's heart had started to beat again. After rushing to the quinjet, Clint jumped in the captain's seat and took off as fast as he could. Tony was still bleeding terribly, and, after jerking on the pair of sweats they kept on board, Bruce started to press bandages onto the ruins of Tony's left arm. Barking orders at Natasha and Steve, they managed to frantically remove the rest of the armor, and start an IV. "Hold that bag _up_, Natasha, and stay there!" Bruce had no time to be his normal polite self. Blood was still leaking from under the sodden gauze that doctor was holding with one hand, while the other was exploring the discoloration on Tony's side. "Broken ribs, at least two, probably three."_

Steve tried to jerk his mind back to the present. He started to count floor tiles, make patterns with the dots on the ceiling, watch the agents passing by. Nothing was working.

_Tony sucked in a breath and moaned. "Bruce, he's waking up!" Steve cried. _

"_Keep him awake, Steve, talk to him." Bruce ordered. _

"_Hey, Tony, look at me, OK? Hey, come on, that's it," said Steve as Tony's glassy eyes met his, "Just keep looking at me, alright? Tony!" Steve slapped Tony's face as his eyes sagged shut, "Stay awake, now, you hear me? Stay awake! C'mon, breathe."_

_Bruce did something to Tony's arm, and the once-proud billionaire whimpered in pain. His eyes seemed to beg Steve to make it stop. "I know, Tony, I know, just hang in there, stay awake-"_

_Thor was pressed against the wall of the quinjet, unable to help, and unable to look away. "Can we not travel faster?"_

_Clint swore from the driver's seat, "I'm going as fast as I can, dammit!"_

_Bruce's eyes flashed green and he yelled, "Go faster!"_

"_Workin' on it!"_

_Steve wasn't really listening, he was chattering at Tony trying to keep him awake and aware. "If you fall to sleep, Stark, I'm going to get Pepper on you! Yes, I would stoop that low. Whoa, Tony, open your eyes!" Steve's blood ran cold as Tony's eyes slipped shut, but Tony jerked them back open. "That's it, Tony, we're almost there."_

_Suddenly, the Arc Reactor, which was emitting its steady blue-white glow, blazed into eye-blinding brightness. Tony's eyes flew wide again, and he thrashed on the table. _

_Bruce swore vibrantly in Bengali* as he moved to brace Tony's arm. "Thor! Come here and hold his head!" As the god firmly held Tony's head in his giant hands, Bruce frantically looked around for another pair of hands, and seeing none, rested his green gaze on Steve._

"_You've got to take out the reactor."_

Steve shuddered at the memory. Thor saw the motion, and rested a hand on Steve's shoulder. "You did well, my friend. Do not doubt it, your actions saved his life."

"I know," Steve said, with his head buried in his hands. "I just…you didn't see his face. He _saw_ what I was doing, and he looked at me like-" he broke off again.

"_What?!" Steve cried, "That's the only thing keeping him alive!"_

"_Yeah, well right now that thing is doing more harm than good, it's electrocuting him from the inside, now I said _take it out!_" Bruce yelled._

_Steve steeled himself, and as he reached down to the now softly glowing Reactor, Tony looked up and met Steve's eyes._

_The Captain will never forget that look of horror and betrayal as he pulled the device from the center of Tony's chest._

oOo

Several hours and the entire vending machine's stash of Pop-Tarts later, Bruce walked wearily out of the Helicarrier's med-wing.

All the Avengers flew to their feet and started throwing questions at the exhausted physicist. Bruce held up a trembling hand to stop the barrage, and said, "He's going to be fine."

A collective sigh of relief echoed through the hall.

"So," said Clint, "what are we looking at now, recovery-wise?"

"And what exactly happened with his heart?" added Steve.

Bruce frowned. "The arm is going to take a while to heal. It was a nasty break, it's called a Holstein-Lewis fracture, so he's got nerve damage. They did surgery and now he's got some nice screws and a plate holding his humerus together. We _think_ he'll be able to use the hand again-"

"Whoa, whoa, you _think_? That's not going to cut it with Tony, Bruce, you know how much he uses his hands!" said Clint.

Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Yes, and that's why I made sure they knew that too. They did their best. Now the rest is up to Tony. As for his heart, that's another thing. It seems there's been some sort of malfunction within the Arc Reactor that's been letting out excess electricity. Since the heart runs on electricity, it's been causing Atrial Fibrillation for the past week."

Natasha asked, "What does that mean?"

Bruce sighed. "Do we have to do this right now?" At the disparaging looks from the rest of the team, Bruce said, "He's not in any danger right now, we've got a new Arc Reactor in, hopefully that will solve the problem, he's got three broken ribs, a severe concussion, he's recovering from anesthesia, so he won't be up for a very long time, the nurses will let you in as soon as he goes from post-op to a room, I just had two Hulk-out's in one day without passing out afterwards, and I had to observe some delicate surgery on my best friend, so now I'm going to find some nice quiet sofa somewhere on this ship and not wake up for twelve hours. Are we good?"

Steve raised his eyebrows at this outburst. Bruce was right though, he looked like crap. "Sure thing, doctor. Do you want me to get you when Tony wakes up?"

Bruce flashed Steve a grateful smile. "That would be great, Steve."

As Bruce shakily made his way down the hall, Steve slumped down in his chair. _Great. More waiting._

oOo

**Didn't go as far as I'd liked, but hey, no cliffhanger this time! Aren't you proud of me? **

***Language spoken in Calcutta, India**

**Completely unrelated, but it's killing me. PEOPLE. THIS IS MORE ANNOYING THAN THEY'RE/THERE. DO YOU PEOPLE NOT KNOW HOW TO SPELL 'BREATHE?' I swear, it's like every fic I read, people are mixing up 'breath' and 'breathe'. **

Breathe**- [brEE**_**th**_**] (v.) to take in air, oxygen, ect., into the lungs and expel it [used without object].  
**Breath**- [breth] (n.) the air inhaled and exhaled in the process of respiration.**

**No lie, every single fic I've read this week has had this mistake. Ok, maybe not everyone, but enough to where I want to shoot myself. I didn't know this was such a widespread problem. Is this some sort of weird Great Britain thing that I need to 'cheque' out? See what I did there? No? Anyone? Ok…**

**I'm trying to make puns at three in the morning.**

**THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS. **

**Goodnight everyone.**

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate!**


	9. On Tony Watch

**WASSUP BITCHES?**

**Congratulations to **Sam-Jo2013 **for winning my review contest. THAT CONTEST IS ONGOING PEEPS. KEEP SENDING GREAT REVIEWS AND I WILL KEEP SENDING SPOILERS!**

**EVEN BIGGER CONGRATULATIONS TO **ancara-iii ** WHO WAS MY 200****TH**** REVIEWER ! You know what that means, peeps? **_**I've got two hundred mother-f'ing reviews! **_** \**(^o^\) **To the windoooow! **(/^o^)/ **To the wall!**

**Yeah. So **ancara-iii **wishes, she has the power to prompt me for an Avengers One-Shot. If you don't get back to me by my next update, dearie, I will move to the next one in lin! Just a heads up :) **

**SO ON WITH THE FIC!**

As Tony slowly regained consciousness, he had just enough mental faculties available to curse the grogginess and disorientation that currently weighed down his mind like a heavy coat of wet wool. He vaguely heard things, felt things, but his head spun and ached so badly that he gave up on trying to fight through the fog and slipped back into the warm blackness.

oOo

The next time Tony was aware, something had changed. His mind didn't seem quite so slow, and he could work through his limited knowledge to try to grasp what was going on. _Number one_, he thought, _I just got my ass whupped by some HammerTech. Jesus _Christ_, my bar is dropping._ Mentally rolling his eyes, _Number two, I am most likely in a hospital. Shit._ Tony's feelings about hospitals ranked somewhere above his feelings for Afghani deserts and below being handed things. So, in short, he couldn't stand them.

As his head cleared even more, he began to be aware of sounds. Repetitive, annoying ones, and low soothing ones. He liked those sounds, he decided. But not the first sounds. He didn't like those.

Tony struggled to make out what these sounds were exactly, but his mind wasn't running on all cylinders just yet. Slowly, _so_ slowly, he realized that the good sounds, the pleasant ones, they were voices. He was hearing voices. The heaviness in his head prevented him from making any more startling revelations, and it was becoming so hard to fight off that warm, soft nothingness that threatened to overwhelm him. Soon, he just stopped fighting, and fell into oblivion once more.

oOo

Countless rounds of sort-of awareness then passing out later, Tony felt himself come to again. But this time his luck had really shifted. He could understand what was being said around him.

"-ever going to come back?"

"Don't talk like that! He hasn't been out for that long, I mean, this- Tony should be able to beat this."

"Pepper, you know how tricky head wounds are. And remember, we lost him that day. Twice. He had to be resuscitated both times, and you know as well as I do what that can do to your brain."

A pause, then a sound like a choked sob. "What do I do, Bruce?"

"Talk to him. They say people in comas can hear you-"

Tony stopped listening. Coma. Coma? What the hell?! He couldn't be in a coma, he was right there, can't they see he's there? Tony tried for the first time to move the limbs that felt like they were incased in lead, and unfortunately, that's when his sense of touch returned.

And it returned with a vengeance. His head, his arm, his chest, his ribs, every breath hurt like breathing in glass, and the air he was breathing felt cold and sharp in his lungs. He couldn't move, it hurt everywhere, and the only thing he wanted to do was to cry out from the pain, but he couldn't figure out how to control his own body enough to do that.

_This was not happening_.

He could tell that he was panicking, he knew he was panicking, but his own body felt like a cage, a fiery, agonizing cage, and that would freak anyone out. He was desperate to move, to speak, to open his damn eyes, but nothing.

He couldn't hold Pepper and tell her not to cry.

As his panic started to overtake his mind, the involuntary reactions to fear started to express themselves. That annoying noise (_heart monitor_, he thought) started to beep wildly in tandem with his racing heart.

"Oh my god, Bruce! What's wrong with him?!"

"Pulse is elevated, erratic. Go get his doctor, now!"

As the sound of voices started to swell and rise in panic, Tony slipped back with a feeling close to relief.

oOo

Tony woke again. Each time he came to he was able to think with a little more coherency and a little less confusion. Surprisingly, this time he had no problems establishing what was going on around him.

"Hey, Tony. This feels really strange." That was Steve, Tony thought. "Bruce said that if we talk to you that you might get better faster and…" A pause. It seemed that Steve was struggling to find the words to say. "We need you back, Tony." A warm hand clasped his. Funny, Tony didn't notice how cold he was until then. "People may think that I'm the leader of this team, but you're what keeps us together. The Tower isn't the same without you there. It's too quiet, and there isn't nearly as much classic rock and spilled coffee. Pepper is losing her mind out here, and…I need you to get better."

_Jesus, Steve,_ thought Tony, _stop being such a princess about this. I'm not dead._

"God, I'm being too emotional about this. What did you call me the other day? Princess? Yeah, you would say that I'm too big of a princess."

_You're good, Capsicle_.

Steve sighed again, and squeezed Tony's hand. "You'd be surprised how the rest of them have been. It's like they're…stir-crazy. Like, they can't mess around with you, so they're…I don't know. But maybe you'd like to know what stunt Clint's pulled now?"

_Ohhh, yes!_

"He bedazzled Mjolnir."

_Does he have a deathwish?! Man's got some balls. _

"Sounds pretty gutsy, doesn't it? Originally, he wanted to hide it, but it's pretty hard to hide something that the Hulk can't budge, so when Jane dragged Thor out two days ago, Clint took some stuff from Pepper's cabinets. Glitter, a ribbon, some nail polish, I think."

Tony was conflicted. On one hand, how _dare_ Clint Barton pull a stunt like this with Tony out of commission! But on the other hand, _full marks for you, sir! _

"So, Clint had to get Bruce to patch him up a little. Nothing too bad, don't worry, but he's not going to be able to see out of his left eye for a while."

This story made Tony feel better than he had since god knows how long. Inwardly, he was howling with laughter, but outwardly he was just as immobile as ever. It seemed almost as if the power to control his muscles had completely escaped him, but he wanted to thank Steve, at least a little, for giving Tony such good blackmail material for later, so he focused all his energy into his right hand, the warmest part of his body, the hand that Steve was holding.

"Oh my god, Tony can you hear me?"

Tony couldn't believe it. He'd done it! After days of being trapped in his own body, unable to do anything, he had _moved._

oOo

"Bruce, I swear, he squeezed my hand, I know he did!" Steve proclaimed.

Bruce rubbed a hand over his face, "Are you sure? Maybe you just thought he did. I mean, if you were moving at all, and you wanted him to respond to y-"

"I'm not making this up! Go in there, talk to him, ask him to do it again! Maybe he'll hear you."

An exhausted sigh slipped out of Bruce's lips as he looked in the widows to Tony's prone form. "I'll try. God knows, we could do with some good news right now…" Bruce quietly opened the door, and settled in the chair close beside Tony's right hand, where they all had been keeping vigil at some time in the last week. "Tony? Tony, buddy, Steve said you moved your hand for him. If you're not asleep, if you can hear me, do you think you could try to do that again?" The pale, calloused hand on the overly bleached sheets didn't stir. "Come on, Tony. Please? Pepper's been here, she stayed all night. I had to make her go get some sleep, but she'll back in a few hours. Don't you want to say hey?"

Bruce gently clasped the unmoving hand. "I know you're in there Tony. A minute ago, I tried to tell Steve that he didn't actually see anything. Prove me wrong, dammit. You know you love to do that. Prove me wrong!"

Ever so slightly, the index finger resting on Bruce's palm lifted and settled again. The Physicist's eyes grew wide. "Tony…Tony, that was great! Can you do it again?" The finger twitched up again. "You're doing so great, Tony! So great! Try putting two fingers up at once." The first two fingers on Tony's right hand rose for a moment, like a peace sign. Tears of relief welled in Bruce's eyes. "God, Tony, thank you…"

Steve, looking through the windows of the room, saw Bruce's joyful reaction to Tony's miniscule movements, and pulled out his StarkPhone, that Tony gave him, and shot out a quick text, just like Tony taught him. _He's back._

oOo

Days passed. Everyone watched as Tony slowly regained control of his unresponsive body. He was able to hold basic conversation with limited hand signals (ASL alphabet, the 'OK' sign, the 'go fuck yourself' sign, which got used a lot) and he was capable of making rudimentary sounds and smiling a little.

But he still hadn't opened his eyes. To be honest, it was a little worrying.

They kept at it. Anytime Tony seemed the least bit responsive, they were by his side, cheering him on as he was able to follow more and more complex commands, do more things at once, and do all of the things that made the doctors all rave with how quickly he was improving.

_Quick_, Natasha snorted. _There's nothing 'quick' about this._

It was her turn on Tony Watch, so she settled into the squishy armchair that Clint managed to smuggle in, somehow. His breathing was slow, shallow, and even. _Asleep_. So there was no point in trying to make up things to say. She buried her head in her hands with a frustrated groan.

After a few minutes of silence broken only by the beeping of the monitors, Tony let out a small whine, and his hand tightened into a loose fist.

"Tony," she asked, "Can you hear me?"

A nod of his closed fist. _Yes_, he signed.

"Do you- do you want to talk?"

His first two fingers and his thumb pinched together. _No._

Natasha took in his appearance again. He seemed to be a bit more uneasy, and his motions were even more sluggish than usual, but at the same time, jerky. "Do you want a nurse? For some pain meds?"

Two sharper nods, _Yes, and be quick about it_, so Natasha stuck her head out of the room where Clint was perched on top of a cabinet. "Can you get a nurse?"

He hopped down immediately, landing in a crouch with a worried look stamped across his features. "Why? Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, he's fine, he just wants something for pain."

He shot a knowing look through the windows at Tony. "Gotcha. Be back in a sec."

While not quite a second, Clint was back with a nurse in tow in record time. That was the good thing about being in a SHIELD med bay. Their reputations were _exceedingly_ well known. Natasha stood beside Clint against the wall while the nurse fussed about. She shot a vial of painkillers in his IV, and watched as the tiny crease between his eyelids smoothed out and his breathing deepened. With a small nod to the agents, she quickly exited.

Tony's mouth hung slightly open, emphasizing the hollowness of the cheeks, and the lack of goatee. It had been shaved on his first day in ICU, and he just didn't look like himself…

To her ultimate horror, she felt the retched sting of tear behind her eyes. Blinking hard, she tried to get rid of them without Clint seeing, but her traitorous eyes welled up and spilled over.

"Natasha? Nat, are you OK? Tahsa, baby, what's wrong?"

She quickly turned away from him and stared at the far wall with a glare. "котенок, look at me."

Natasha did not answer him.

"Natalia…"

That got a response. Clint never used her birth name unless it was very dire circumstances. "What?" she snapped.

His hands rested on her shoulders. "Наталья ... Чего вы так боитесь?" His hands rubbed her arms. "Он здесь, он в порядке. Почему ты плачешь?" A hand came to cup her cheek and brush away an errant tear.

"Мои слезы мои собственные. Вы знаете, что, птичка." She hated, _hated, _crying in front of people, but especially Clint. He had hoped once that she would become more open with her emotions in front of him, and she had, with everything except her tears.

"Но зачем скрывать их? Вы не слабы для них, котенка."

She wanted to snort at that, but instead tried to untangle the knot of emotions that choked her chest. "Он ... уменьшилась." That was the best word for this. _Diminished_. "Это нервирует, видя его в таком состоянии ... Я не знал, что я заботился так много. Я - я скомпрометирован ... Я должен, я не могу …" At a very young age, the Red Room drilled into her, more literally than figuratively, that emotional attachments ruined missions. They made for defective agents, who were nothing but a liability in battle.

Clint's face tightened, and he shook her once, lightly. "Нет! Это не слабость, котенка. Эта сила. Помнишь, что сказал Фил?" She looked into his eyes at that. It wasn't often that he brought up their old handler. "Вместе мы сильнее, Наталья. И теперь у нас есть дом, семья! Вы сильны, моя любовь, больше, чем когда-либо."

As the undeniable truth in his words hit home, a few more stray tears fell from her eyes. Seizing upon this moment, he gathered her close to him, and she murmured into his chest "люблю тебя. идиот." She could feel the vibrations of his silent chuckle.

After a moment or two of just being held, she pulled away slightly. "Now what?"

He smiled gently at his love. "Now we wait."

oOo

**Translation is Google Translate, so…Lols. **

Kitten.  
Natalia... What are you so afraid of? He is here, he is fine. Why do you cry?  
My tears are my own. You know that, little bird/ birdie.  
But why hide them? You are not weak for them, kitten.  
He is... diminished. It is unnerving, seeing him like this... I didn't know I cared so much. I - I am compromised... I must, I cannot…  
No! This is not weakness, kitten. This is strength. Remember what Phil said? Together we are stronger, Natalia. And now we have a home, a family! You are strong, my love, more than ever.  
I love you, moron.

**Sooo… I have no idea where this idea came from. Like, left field doesn't even cover it. I have a tentative plot outline for this fic, and comas where nowhere to be seen. **

**I think I've been neglecting Clintasha. So here is a hitherto unseen POV: Natasha. And I loved writing it. Tell me what you think of how a characterized them.**

**Sigh. It's going to be five in the morning before I actually get this thing posted. WHYYYY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!**

**Unrelated but really important, did anyone see the new Supernatural? Because that ending is perfect fodder for some Cas!Whump Fics. If any of you have some good ones tagged onto 8x21, shoot them my way!**

**You Know You Wanna Be Kate**


	10. AUTHOR'S NOTE THIS IS IMPORTANT

I know you all hate me for an Author's Note Chapter but this is important

This message is going out to the followers of the stories:  
Proof Tony Stark Has A Heart  
Halloween  
For the Love of a Godfather  
Memories of Emrys

First of all, _**THIS IS NOT A HIATUS MESSAGE!  
**_

Alrighty then.

I just wanted to thank you all for the amazing amount of support and love I've gotten for these stories for the last few weeks. It just occured to me that I have been on this site for a little over six months now. Before then I didn't even know what fanfiction was! (My how times have changed!) I just wanted to tell you all that you're all amazing and perfect and I just can't with how awesome you've all been to me. Do you know I've neve gotten a flame before? Every one of my reviews, while not always positive, were always polite and constructive. YOU'RE THE BESTEST!

That being said, I have reached a point in my life where some things need to change. I completely bombed my first year of college, and lost all my scholarships. Which is one hundred percent my fault, but it does make life look a little harder in the near future. So now I'm taking a gap year, working and trying to save up enough money to where I can go back to school.

I've also been diagnosed with severe Depression, and this is making it hard to feel motivated about anything. If you don't know much about depression, I suggest you go to a little research. I promise, I am trying, but this is an illness, and I am trying my hardest to overcome it.

So my updates will become few and far between, at best. Fanfiction has completely taken over my life, and while I love it, and I love y'all, I need to prioritize a little better. **MY STORIES ARE NOT ABANDONED! **I couldn't do that to my babies, and I couldn't do that to my beautiful followers.

Whenever I do update, it will be cause for celebration. I cannot say when, but I am writing. Just not as much as I will be.

Thank you all for being so freaking perfect.

I''m not quite sure You Wanna Be Kate anymore, but whatevs.

You Know You Wanna Be Kate!


	11. The Nightmare

**First and foremost, I just want to thank all of you for the outpouring of love and support from all of my followers. This has been a very difficult time in my life and it makes it easier that I know people are there for me, no matter what.**

**Have any of you had ideas and you wanted to write them so badly but you can't because you'll have to write like three more chapters before you get to the juicy stuff? That's what's happening to me. I have like three or four ideas that I really want to show you, but UGH I CAN'T BECAUSE THIS HAS TO MAKE SENSE AND I HAVE TO ACTUALLY WRITE CHRONOLOGICALLY AND TONY HAS TO COME HOM FROM THE HOSPITAL EVENTUALLY AND I QUIT. **

**Rant over. Speaking of rants, I have a lovely one at the bottom ;)**

**Remember when I promised y'all some angst from the Steve-taking-the-Reactor thingy? Well, HERE IT BE! (I swear to God, I don't actually talk like that. I was being facetious, I swear!)**

**Angsty Angst Angst. And it's beautiful. **

oOo

Pepper brushed back the dark curls from Tony's forehead as he slept on. It had taken a while, with quite a few moments of frustration from all of them, but they were finally—_finally!— _back home.

The whole team watched as Pepper settled Tony down on the couch. He had walked to the elevator under his own power, and stood during the ride up to the penthouse, but he began to lean heavily against the wall abut halfway through, and he needed Clint to help guide him to the couch where he fell asleep almost immediately. Steve grabbed a throw blanket off an armchair nearby and tossed it over Tony's legs, just to feel like he was doing something.

Tony was sprawled out, still pale, but with the beginnings of a new beard on his face. His color wasn't quite as deathly as before. The harsh fluorescent lights in the hospital made him look waxy and gaunt, and just being back in the natural light streaming in from the huge windows made him appear more healthy and whole.

Bruce pulled a handful of orange, childproof bottles out of his pockets and set them down on the table next to the couch where Tony lay*. "Pepper, he'll need to start taking these in a few hours. These are Percocet, pain medicine. Every six hours he'll need some, so wake him up to give it to him, and stay ahead of the pain**, but don't give him any more than written. These," he held up another bottle of pills, "are called Soma, they're muscle relaxers and…they're three times a day, so give him one when he gets the pain pills, okay? And these are called Mobic. This can wait until tomorrow morning." He arranged the bottles on the table in a neat row.

Pepper smiled at Bruce thinly. "Thank you Bruce. Did you get that, JARVIS?"

"Indeed, Ms. Potts. Either you or Dr. Banner will be alerted when he needs a dose."

"Thanks, JARVIS." Pepper settled down in a chair near Tony's head, and stroked his hair. She seemed tired, older. Steve noticed hastily-covered bags under her eyes, and her normally pristine suit was a bit wrinkled.

Snagging his sketchpad and a box of pencils, Steve said, "Mr. Potts, you can go to sleep, if you'd like. We can watch him for a few minutes."

"I might just take you up on that, Captain. If you don't mind, I'll just take a nap here."

Natasha grabbed Pepper's briefcase from where Pepper had dropped it as they came in through the door. "Get some sleep, Pepper. I'll catch you up on some paperwork. We both know I can do your signature better than you can."

"You're a lifesaver, Tasha." Pepper yawned as she rested her head against the cushions behind her.

oOo

A few hours later, not much had changed. Pepper and Tony slept on, Steve had done about five new sketches, and decided to make a big project out of one of them, Bruce was eye deep into _Nanorobotics Today_, Natasha had caught Pepper up on most of her backlogged paperwork, and was now helping Clint teach Thor how to play chess. Thor was extremely good at strategy, but terrible at keeping said strategy from his opponent. His aptitude for the game really didn't surprise anyone though, with how much schooling he had in warfare back on Asgard.

Pepper stirred and groaned softly. Rubbing her eyes and pushing red hair out of her face, she blearily asked, "Wh-what time is it?"

"About six-thirty," Bruce supplied.

"Oh. Okay." She rested her face in her hands for a minute, and then announced, "I'm going to go take a shower. I still smell like hospital." And she stumbled off to the suite she shared with Tony.

Quietly, Thor celebrated as he captured Clint's knight with a well-made move from his queen, handicapping him and putting him into check. Clint grimaced at his mistake and observed the board for a while, hawklike eyes narrowed. He retaliated with a quick move from a castle that took out Thor's queen and threw the balance of power back in his favor. Steve struggled not to burst into loud laughter at the parade of emotions on Thor's expressive face.

A few moves and some quiet death threats later, Clint said fuming as he contemplated the board where his Kind was currently trapped by a pawn and a knight, while all of his other pieces were tied up elsewhere on the board. Grumbling, he flicked his king over as Thor basked in his win. Natasha gave Thor a high-five, just to make Clint irritated, but he eventually accepted the offer of another game, only if Thor would play on his own this time, without any help from Natasha.

Pepper came back into the room a few minutes later wearing some sweatpants and an old MIT T-shirt of Tony's. Bruce and Steve had long since given up attempting to focus on anything else, and they crowded around the heavy wooden chessboard where Clint's hands hesitated over an ebony pawn, contemplating whether to sacrifice it or not. Steve, being somewhat unfamiliar with the game, couldn't see the strategy behind the moves, and just enjoyed watching the reactions of his teammates, exaggerated because they were all trying to be quiet and not wake Tony.

Pulling her damp hair into a bun on the top of her head, she whispered to Bruce, "Has he woken up yet?"

"No," Bruce replied, "He hasn't even moved."

"Do we need to give him his medicine yet?"

Checking his watch, Bruce said, "Hmm…we can give him a few more minutes."

Satisfied, Pepper curled up in an armchair with a few of the files that Natasha couldn't finish while everyone else turned their attention back from Tony to Thor capturing the pawn Clint just sacrificed, playing right into Hawkeyes hands.

They should have known the peace couldn't last.

As Thor and Natasha set up the pieces for another game, (after two losses Clint felt it prudent to withdraw) and Steve began to smudge some charcoal onto his newest drawing, tony began to stir. Mumbling into the pillow, he flinched and thrashed, trying to fight off some unseen enemy.

Pepper flew to his side. She knelt by his head as he cried out wordlessly and she gasped "Tony! Tony, honey, wake up! Wake up, Tony, you're having a nightmare, Tony please wake up!"

When she captured Tony's face between her slender, manicured hands, his eyes flew open and he sat up quickly, gasping for breath. His eyes were wide and vacant, with hugely dilated pupils.

"Calm down, Tony, it's okay, baby, shh!"

Tony continued to struggle and gasp, his breathing edging toward hyperventilation as he began to claw at the steady blue light shining through hi T-shirt. "Gone!" he gasped, "It's gone!" He cried out as his frantic movements began to pain his still-healing ribs and arm.

"No, Tony, you're fine, it's okay, it's here see?" she captured his wrist and held his hand against the reactor.

The whole team were on their feet now, distractions forgotten as Tony's breathing grew even more labored. He pressed back against the couch cushions, eyes darting back and forth but not really seeing anything.

With his good hand still pressed between Pepper's and the Arc Reactor, he gasped, "He took it, Pepper!"

Pulling Tony's hand away, Pepper said, "No, Tony, it's right here, breathe Tony," but he just began to shake and gasp harder.

"No! No, please, Pepper, don't let him take it, Pepper!"

Tears fell down Pepper's face. "Obadiah's not here, Tony, he can't-"

"No, Steve! Steve took it, and I can't breathe, and he's—gonna, he's coming back—and I can't—breathe—Pepper, help!"

Every eye in the room was locked on Steve's bone-white face.

Horrified, Steve backed away, and when Tony dissolved into helpless gasps, Steve turned and fled from the room.

oOo

***All medications are real; my mommy is a pharmacist and my aunt is a doctor. They are the best resources ever.**

****This isn't actual medical advice, at least, no doctor ever told me this, but my brother and I have had multiple broke bones and surgeries, so we've done the pain-meds dance. We found it to be easier if we took the meds on time, whether it hurt or not, but not the maximum dose. It kept us from ever maxing out on the medicine, and we were never really in pain. This way, we weren't tempted to take more than necessary, but we weren't ever in agony. If there's a doctor in the house, you're two cents would be most appreciated. **

**ATTENTION ALL JERKS AND FLAMERS. This is a fanfic. *gasp!* I know. That means I'm a 19 year old English Ed. Major from Mobile, Alabama. Not a doctor. I know, right? I do my homework, but I will get few things wrong every now and then. Feel free to throw up a red flag, and that is much appreciated, but please. I ain't got time to do a shit ton of research! Front page of Google and calling my aunt is about as in-depth as I can go. Artistic Liberty was created for a reason. And, besides, if you get huffy over my choice in prescriptions, but you're perfectly cool with the fact that I have a NORSE GOD SITTING ON THE COUCH PLAYING CHESS AND EATING POPTARTS YOU NEED TO GO HOME. **

BloodFromTheThorn, **that rant was for you, girl!**


End file.
